Not just noise: individual differences in general startle reactivity predict startle response to uncertain and certain threat

Abstract

General startle reactivity reflects defensive reactivity independent of affective foreground. We examined the relationship between general startle reactivity and startle response to threat in three tasks with distinct manipulations of threat uncertainty. General startle reactivity was a stronger predictor of startle response during threat (vs. no threat) and uncertain (vs. certain threat). These results confirm that including general startle reactivity in our analyses can increase the power and/or precision to test effects of other focal experimental manipulations or grouping variables. Moreover, this suggests that individual differences in defensive reactivity moderate responding to threats of various types in our environment. As such, individual differences in general startle reactivity may index important psychological attributes related to trait affectivity, premorbid vulnerability for psychopathology, and manifest psychopathology.

Keywords: Anxiety; EMG; Individual differences; Startle blink.

Figure 1. Startle Response by General Startle Reactivity and Condition

Gray bands indicate confidence envelopes (+/− one standard error) for point estimates of startle response from the general linear model (GLM). We included a strip plot of General startle reactivity for all participants along each x-axis. We report GLM coefficients for the simple effects in each condition. Panel A displays aggregate data across the three tasks. Panels B-D display data separately for the three tasks.