Prepulse inhibition of the acoustic startle reflex and oculomotor control

Prepulse inhibition and the suppression of reflexive saccades on the antisaccade task are thought to tap inhibitory function. Reports of a lack of association between these measures suggest that they reflect different facets of inhibition. This study aimed to reexamine this relationship in a large sample and investigate the association of prepulse inhibition with oculomotor tasks that require inhibition of a reflexive saccade with lower concurrent processing demands than antisaccades, namely the oculomotor delayed response and fixation with distractors tasks. One hundred and seven healthy volunteers took part. Prepulse inhibition was uncorrelated with oculomotor performance. The error rate was highest for antisaccades, intermediate for the delayed response task, and lowest for fixation with distractors, and was correlated across tasks. These findings provide no evidence of a relationship between prepulse inhibition and oculomotor inhibition. Failure in suppressing reflexive saccades toward a peripheral target may represent a common inhibitory component underlying these oculomotor tasks.