Blink reflex modification by selective attention: Evidence for the modulation of ‘automatic’ processing

Anthony, Bruno J.; Graham, Frances K.

doi:10.1016/0301-0511(85)90052-3

Cited by 148 publications

(129 citation statements)

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“…It appeared possible that PPI did not occur because, due to the film-viewing procedure, prepulses were not detected. Film or slide viewing has been commonly used in PPI studies of older children and adults (e.g., Reiter, 1977;Stitt, Hoffman, & DeVido, 1980), and Balaban, Anthony and Graham (1985) found other effects of slightly longer (43 msec) prestimuli presented to 4-month infants during slide viewing. However, shorter prepulses might be more easily ignored, or slides might be more attention-engaging, at 15 months than at younger and older ages.…”

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confidence: 98%

Prestimulation effects on blink and cardiac reflexes of 15‐month human infants

Balaban¹,

Anthony²,

Graham

1989

Developmental Psychobiology

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Reduction of reflex startle by brief changes in prestimulation is a robust phenomenon in adults of several species. Although the phenomenon does not require structures above midbrain, it has a long and uneven developmental course. This study of human infants assessed prestimulus effects at 15 months, within a period which has failed, in past work, to show the usual inhibitory modulation. Magnitude and onset latency of the startle blink and concurrent changes in heart rate were measured under four conditions: 2 single-stimulus conditions, 25-msec, 84-dB, 1000-Hz tone or 50-msec, 109-dB white noise; 2 paired-stimulus conditions, noise bursts preceded by tone at lead times of 125 msec or 225 msec. Compared to noise-alone, paired conditions elicited insignificant increases in blink size, significant shortening of blink onset latency, and significant attenuation of heart rate responses. The findings add to growing evidence of a dissociation between modulating effects on blink magnitude and latency and of a dissociation between modulating effects on somatic and autonomic reflexes.

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confidence: 98%

Prestimulation effects on blink and cardiac reflexes of 15‐month human infants

Balaban¹,

Anthony²,

Graham

1989

Developmental Psychobiology

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“…There was a selective enhancement0attenuation of the blink reflex during attention, depending on the match0mismatch between the foreground and blink stimuli. The facilitatory effects of attention on blink reflex amplitude presumably are due to enhancement of afferent sensory pathways that are complementary to the attention system that is engaged~Anthony & Graham, , 1985Graham, 1992;Richards, 1998!. In this study, there was enhancement of the blink reflex to the auditory blink stimulus and the visual blink stimulus in the conditions in which attention was engaged relative to the conditions in which attention was hypothesized to be unengaged. Additionally, for the auditory blink stimulus this attention enhancement effect significantly increased over the four testing ages~Figure 4!.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 60%

“…The pattern of results in this study, and in studies examining selective modality effects of attention~Anthony & Graham, , 1985Balaban et al, 1989;Hackley & Graham, 1983;Haerich, 1994;Richards, 1998! suggest that a general arousal system and modality-specific systems are involved in attention.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…Several studies have shown that the blink reflex to a stimulus is enhanced when there is a match between the modality of the blink stimulus and the modality of the foreground stimulus to which attention is directed , 1985Balaban, Anthony, & Graham, 1989;Hackley & Graham, 1983;Haerich, 1994;Richards, 1998!. Alternatively, when the modality of the blink stimulus and the modality of the foreground stimulus to which attention is directed are different, the blink reflex may be attenuated or may be the same as when attention is not engaged. This attentional modulation of the blink reflex demonstrates that attention may be selective toward specific modalities and implies that there may be modalityspecific attention systems in the brain.…”

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Development of multimodal attention in young infants: Modification of the startle reflex by attention

Richards

2000

Psychophysiol.

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This study examined the effect of attention engagement to compound auditory-visual stimuli on the modification of the startle blink reflex in infants. Infants at 8, 14, 20, or 26 weeks of age were presented with interesting audiovisual stimuli. After stimulus onset, at delays defined by heart rate changes known to be associated with sustained attention or attention disengagement, blink reflexes were elicited by visual or auditory stimuli. Blink amplitude to either visual or auditory stimuli was enhanced when the infants were engaged in attention to the foreground auditory-visual stimuli relative to control trials with no foreground patterns. This enhancement of the blink amplitude increased from 8 to 26 weeks of age. In contrast to selective modality enhancement for single-modality foreground stimuli, these results show that these multimodal stimuli engage both visual and auditory attention systems in this age range.Descriptors: Infants, Attention, Heart rate, Blink reflex, Multimodal stimuli Directing attention to one modality affects the blink reflex to stimuli in that modality and other modalities. Several studies have shown that the blink reflex to a stimulus is enhanced when there is a match between the modality of the blink stimulus and the modality of the foreground stimulus to which attention is directed

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“…The prevailing practice within behavioral studies to measure EMG peak amplitude seems, at least partly, based on early studies introducing this method. Some frequently used scoring programs (e.g., Balaban et al, 1986; see also Anthony and Graham, 1985) were designed for scoring either EMG, electrooculographic, or mechanical (potentiometric) blink reflex measures. These programs invariably scored peak amplitude of each response measure.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Filters for optimal smoothing of acoustic and electric blink reflex EMG responses to determine blink response magnitude

Boxtel

2010

Biological Psychology

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Citation for published version (APA):van Boxtel, A. (2010). Filters for optimal smoothing of acoustic and electric blink reflex EMG responses to determine blink response magnitude. Biological Psychology, 85, 299-305. General rightsCopyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights.-Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research -You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain -You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal Take down policyIf you believe that this document breaches copyright, please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. The functional (i.e., kinematic) aspects of the blink reflex depend on the size of the integrated orbicularis oculi EMG response. Peak amplitude of smoothed rectified EMG is often used as an approximation of integrated EMG. A comparison was made between the outputs of 24 different smoothing filters, correlating peak amplitude of acoustic or electric blink reflexes with integrated EMG. The coefficient of determination (R 2 ) was largest (i.e., ≥.95 for acoustic and ≥.90 for electric blink reflexes) when using either (1) a first-order resistor-capacitor filter with a time constant of 50 or 100 ms, (2) a boxcar filter averaging 51 or 101 data points, or (3) an unequal-weight finite impulse response filter with a cutoff frequency of 5 or 10 Hz. These filters are thus recommended when determining peak amplitude. Applying a baseline correction on peak amplitude and integrated EMG produced slightly smaller values of R 2 compared with uncorrected measures.

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Blink reflex modification by selective attention: Evidence for the modulation of ‘automatic’ processing

Cited by 148 publications

References 36 publications

Prestimulation effects on blink and cardiac reflexes of 15‐month human infants

Prestimulation effects on blink and cardiac reflexes of 15‐month human infants

Development of multimodal attention in young infants: Modification of the startle reflex by attention

Filters for optimal smoothing of acoustic and electric blink reflex EMG responses to determine blink response magnitude

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