Gerum R, Rahlfs H, Streb M, Krauß P, Grimm J, Metzner C, Tziridis K, Günther M, Schulze H, Kellermann W, Schilling A (2019)
Publication Type: Journal article
Publication year: 2019
Book Volume: 13
Article Number: 140
The modulation of the acoustic startle reflex (ASR) by a pre-stimulus called pre-pulse inhibition (PPI, for gap of silence pre-stimulus: GPIAS) is a versatile tool to, e.g., estimate hearing thresholds or identify subjective tinnitus percepts in rodents. A proper application of these paradigms depends on a reliable measurement of the ASR amplitudes and an exact stimulus presentation in terms of frequency and intensity. Here, we introduce a novel open-source solution for the construction of a low-cost ASR setup. The complete software for data acquisition and stimulus presentation is written in Python 3.6 and is provided as an Anaconda package. Furthermore, we provide a construction plan for the sensor system based on low-cost hardware components. Exemplary GPIAS data from two animal models (Mus musculus, Meriones unguiculatus) show that the ratio histograms (1-GPIAS) of the gap-pre-stimulus and no pre-stimulus ASR amplitudes can be well described by a log-normal distribution being in good accordance to previous studies with already established setups. Furthermore, it can be shown that the PPI as a function of pre-stimulus intensity (threshold paradigm) can be approximated with a hard-sigmoid function enabling a reproducible sensory threshold estimation. Thus, we show that the open-source solution could help to further establish the ASR method in many laboratories and, thus, facilitate and standardize research in animal models of tinnitus and/or hearing loss.
APA:
Gerum, R., Rahlfs, H., Streb, M., Krauß, P., Grimm, J., Metzner, C.,... Schilling, A. (2019). Open(G)PIAS: An open-source solution for the construction of a high-precision acoustic startle response setup for tinnitus screening and threshold estimation in rodents. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, 13. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2019.00140
MLA:
Gerum, Richard, et al. "Open(G)PIAS: An open-source solution for the construction of a high-precision acoustic startle response setup for tinnitus screening and threshold estimation in rodents." Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience 13 (2019).
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