Prepulse inhibition of startle reflex (PPI) with the wave is a powerful tool for a measurement of information processing in both animal and humans. Deficit of PPI was found in partients with different psychiatric disorders (schisifrenia, Huntington's disease, obsessive, compulsive disorder, Tourette's syndrome and schizopytal personality disorder).
A defficit of the PPi correlates with positive, negative, cognitive symptoms of schizofrenia, and with the early onset of the illness. Antipsychotic treatment of these psychiatric disonders affected amplitude of the PPI.
Measurement of the amplitude and latency of PPI is an important factor in experimental models of psychosis, in a research of neuronal circuits and their neurotransmitters involved in information processing of the brain.