Comparison of the sensitivity of prepulse inhibition of the startle reflex and operant conditioning in an auditory intensity difference limen paradigm

Reward-based operant conditioning (OC) procedures and reflex-based prepulse inhibition (PPI) procedures are used in mouse psychoacoustics. Therefore it is important to know whether both procedures provide comparable results for perceptual measurements. Here we evaluate the sensitivity of the C57BL/6N mouse in both procedures by testing the same individuals in the same Intensity Difference Limen (IDL) task. Level increments of a 10 kHz tone were presented in a train of 10 kHz reference tones. Objective analysis based on signal-detection theory was applied to compare the results of OC and PPI procedures. In both procedures the sensitivity increased with level increment. In agreement with the near miss to Weber's law, sensitivity increased with sound level of the reference stimuli. The sensitivity observed in the OC procedure was considerably larger than the sensitivity in the PPI procedure. Applying a sensitivity of 1.0 as the threshold criterion, mean IDLs in the OC procedure were 5.0, 4.0 and 3.5 dB at reference levels of 30, 50 and 75 dB SPL respectively. In the PPI procedure, mean IDLs of 18.9 and 17.0 dB at reference levels of 50 and 75 dB SPL respectively were observed. Due to the low sensitivity, IDLs could not be determined in the PPI procedure at a reference level of 30 dB SPL. Possible causes for the low sensitivity in the PPI procedure are discussed. These results challenge the idea that both procedures can be used as simple substitutes of one another and the experimenter must be aware of the limitations of the respective procedure.