• Schizophrenic patients exhibit impairments in both sensorimotor gating and habituation in
a number of paradigms. Through human and animal model research, these fundamental
cognitive deficits have well-described neurobiologic bases and offer insights into the
neuroanatomic and neurotransmitter abnormalities that characterize patients with
schizophrenic spectrum disorders. In this context, the startle response is particularly
interesting, because it is a crossspecies response to strong stimuli that is plastic or alterable …