Rat strain differences in the ability to disrupt sensorimotor gating are limited to the dopaminergic system, specific to prepulse inhibition, and unrelated to changes in startle amplitude or nucleus accumbens dopamine receptor sensitivity.
The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience July 1, 1999 G G Kinney, L O Wilkinson, K L Saywell et al.
Certain drugs, such as phencyclidine (PCP) and 8-OH-DPAT, disrupt prepulse inhibition (PPI) of the startle response in both Sprague Dawley and Wistar rats. However, apomorphine and amphetamine only disrupt PPI in Wistar rats, not in Sprague Dawley rats. This strain difference is specific to PPI, as apomorphine-induced hyperlocomotion, another measure of dopamine receptor activation, was similar in both strains. The findings suggest that the effects of dopamine receptor agonists on PPI can be dissociated from their effects on other behavioral models of dopamine activation.