Measuring P50 Suppression and Prepulse Inhibition in a Single Recording Session

OBJECTIVE: Two distinct measures have been used to assess inhibitory gating deficits in schizophrenia patients: P50 suppression and prepulse inhibition of the startle response. It remains unclear whether both measures can be assessed in a single testing session. METHOD: Twelve normal subjects underwent testing in a carefully designed combined P50/prepulse inhibition session using stimulus characteristics similar to those described in the existing literature. RESULTS: The levels of both P50 suppression and prepulse inhibition obtained in the combined session were highly similar to those obtained in independent testing of previous cohorts of normal subjects. As in previous experiments, P50 suppression and prepulse inhibition were not significantly correlated. CONCLUSIONS: Measuring P50 suppression and prepulse inhibition in a single session is feasible and offers a unique opportunity to assess these two distinct gating measures contemporaneously in cohorts of normal comparison subjects and schizophrenia patients, so that temporal shifts in one or both measures are minimized.