“Affective modulation of the startle reflex in schizophrenic patients”

Startle reflex can be influenced by valence of emotion. This is known as affective modulation of the startle reflex. This effect can provide an objective measure of emotional processes. Affective modulation of the startle reflex was studied in 17 schizophrenic patients and 33 healthy control subjects to investigate possible emotional deficits in schizophrenic patients. Results indicated that there were no significant differences in affective modulation of the startle response between patients and controls. Furthermore, there were no significant differences in the subjective ratings of the pictures between patients and controls. However, because patients as well as controls did not exhibit a typical startle pattern, it cannot be conclusively argued from this data that schizophrenics have a normal affective startle modulation. Further research is needed to conclude if schizophrenics have deficits in affective startle modulation.