Developmental analysis of habituation of the acoustic startle response in the preweanling and adult rats

Our experiments assessed the build-up of short-term and long-term habituation of the acoustic startle response in preweanling and adult rats. Results showed that the adult rats demonstrated both short-term and long-term habituation of the acoustic startle response (ASR). In contrast, the decreased responsiveness to the auditory stimulations was revealed in the preweanling rats only 2 hours after the training session, whilst 24 hours and 48 hours after learning no significant change of the startle amplitude in the rat pups was detected. The data are discussed with respect to maturational interpretations of age-related differences in learning and retrieval processes.