ABSTRACT
Studies of the habituation of startle responses to exteroceptive stimuli provide unique opportunities for cross–species explorations into attentional deficits in schizophrenia. We previously reported that LSD impairs response habituation in a tactile startle paradigm in rats (Geyer et al., 1987; Braff & Geyer, 1980). We have also described a similar impairment of acoustic startle habituation in schizophrenic patients (Geyer & Braff, 1982). Hence, the study of startle habituation may have implications for the neurobiological substrates of the deficits in habituation observed in schizophrenia.
