ABSTRACT

It has been known for some time that the amplitude of the acoustic startle response can be modulated by the presence of ongoing background noise (Davis, 1974; Hoffman and Fleshler, 1963; Hoffman and Ison, 1980; Hoffman and Wible, 1969; Ison and Hammond, 1971; Ison, McAdam, and Hammond, 1973; Ison and Russo, 1990; Ison and Silverstein, 1978). This chapter contains the results of experiments that evaluated the effects of ongoing background noise and tones on the acoustic startle response in C57BL/6J (C57) mice. Additional discussion can be found in Chapter 5.