Motivated attention: Incentive effects on attentional modification of prepulse inhibition

Prepulse inhibition ( PPI) of startle is greater for attended compared to ignored prestimuli, and, consistent with theories of motivated attention, initial evidence suggests that this effect is greater among participants given performance- based incentives. The present study examined a within- subjects incentive manipulation. Participants ( n=41) completed two blocks of a tone discrimination task. During the incentive block, participants received trialwise feedback with small monetary incentives for task performance. Startle eyeblink EMG responses to auditory probes were assessed at 60-, 120-, and 180- ms tone- probe stimulus onset asynchronies ( SOAs). As predicted, PPI was enhanced during attended compared to ignored prestimuli only at the 120- ms SOA in the incentive condition. There was no evidence of attentionalmodi. cation in the no- incentive condition. These data suggest that attentionalmodi. cation of PPI is sensitive to within- subjects manipulations of incentive, providing a useful tool for testing models of motivated attention in psychopathology and psychopharmacology.