ArticlePhysiological reports2015
A broadband acoustic stimulus is more likely than a pure tone to elicit a startle reflex and prepared movements.
Article in Physiological reports, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers.
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Who cites it
15 citing papers in PubMed, 26 citations in OpenAlex.
- What Is the StartReact Effect?Acta physiologica (Oxford, England) · 2026Review
- The impact of electrical vestibular stimulation on the onset of erector spinae muscles activation elicited by a postural and a voluntary task.Experimental brain research · 2025Article
- Effects of asymmetrical postural demands on sternocleidomastoid reflex in the startReact paradigm.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2025Article
- Comparison of the reticulospinal drive to lumbar erector spinae muscles in postural and voluntary tasks using the StartReact paradigm.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2025Article
- An intense electrical stimulus can elicit a StartReact effect but with decreased incidence and later onset of the startle reflex.Experimental brain research · 2024Article
- Age-related changes in reticulospinal contributions to anticipatory postural adjustments between back extensors and abdominal muscles.Experimental physiology · 2024Article
- Startle-triggered responses indicate reticulospinal drive is larger for voluntary shoulder versus finger movements.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Investigating motor preparation in synchronous hand and foot movements under reactive vs. predictive control.Experimental brain research · 2023Article
- Response triggering by an acoustic stimulus increases with stimulus intensity and is best predicted by startle reflex activation.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- Startle Increases the Incidence of Anticipatory Muscle Activations but Does Not Change the Task-Specific Muscle Onset for Patients After Subacute Stroke.Frontiers in neurology · 2021Article
- An unperceived acoustic stimulus decreases reaction time to visual information in a patient with cortical deafness.Scientific reports · 2020Article
- StartReact effects are dependent on engagement of startle reflex circuits: support for a subcortically mediated initiation pathway.Journal of neurophysiology · 2019Article
- High-intensity transcranial magnetic stimulation reveals differential cortical contributions to prepared responses.Journal of neurophysiology · 2019Article
- Foreknowledge of an impending startling stimulus does not affect the proportion of startle reflexes or latency of StartReact responses.Experimental brain research · 2017Article
- Loud Noise Exposure Produces DNA, Neurotransmitter and Morphological Damage within Specific Brain Areas.Frontiers in neuroanatomy · 2017Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
1 author at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
A loud acoustic stimulus that elicits a startle reflex has long been used to study the neurophysiology of cortical and subcortical neural circuits. More recent investigations have shown that startle can act as an early trigger for prepared actions, suggesting a brainstem role in the preparation and initiation of actions. However, in order to attribute any startle-triggered voluntary responses to activation in subcortical structures it is necessary to measure a startle-related activity in these structures. The current study investigated the most effective stimulus for eliciting a detectible startle reflex. While more intense stimuli are more likely to elicit a startle reflex, the current study examined whether broadband noise is more likely than a pure tone to produce a startle at various intensities above 100 dB. Participants performed a button release reaction time task in response to either a 1 kHz tone or a broadband noise pulse with intensities ranging from 82 to 124 dB. Reaction time and EMG from the wrist extensors and the sternocleidomastoid (SCM) were measured. Results showed that startle-related SCM EMG was elicited more frequently by broadband noise compared to pure tones. The higher proportion of startle reflexes observed in SCM was associated with a higher incidence of the voluntary task being triggered early. A higher incidence of startle following broadband noise is attributed to the activation of a larger proportion of the basilar membrane; thus, a lower intensity broadband noise stimulus may be used to elicit startle reflex at a similar rate as a higher intensity pure tone.
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