A deficit in filtering mechanisms

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Gating of sensory information differs in patients with interstitial cystitis/painful bladder syndrome

Thursday, 29 July 2010
Center for Neurobiology of Stress, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California-Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California.
Department of Medicine and Physiology (Division of Digestive Diseases), David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California-Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California.

Altered sensory processing in interstitial cystitis/painful bladder syndrome cases may result from a deficiency of the central nervous system to adequately filter incoming visceral afferent information. We used prepulse inhibition as an operational measure of sensorimotor gating to examine early pre-attentive stages of information processing in females with interstitial cystitis/painful bladder syndrome and healthy controls.

We assessed prepulse inhibition in 14 female patients with interstitial cystitis/painful bladder syndrome and 17 healthy controls at 60 and 120-millisecond prepulse-to-startle stimulus intervals. We evaluated group differences in prepulse inhibition, and relationships between prepulse inhibition, neuroticism and acute stress ratings.

Patients showed significantly decreased prepulse inhibition at 60 and 120-millisecond prepulse intervals. The prepulse inhibition deficit was related to acute stress ratings in the patients. However, increased neuroticism appeared to mitigate the prepulse inhibition deficit in those with interstitial cystitis/painful bladder syndrome, possibly reflecting greater vigilance.

Compared to healthy controls, female patients with interstitial cystitis/painful bladder syndrome had decreased ability to adequately filter incoming information and perform appropriate sensorimotor gating. These results suggest that a possible mechanism for altered interoceptive information processing in interstitial cystitis/painful bladder syndrome cases may be a general deficit in filtering mechanisms due to altered pre-attentive processing.

Written by:
Kilpatrick LA, Ornitz E, Ibrahimovic H, Hubbard CS, Rodríguez LV, Mayer EA, Naliboff BD. Are you the author?

Reference: J Urol. 2010 Jul 17. Epub ahead of print.

PubMed Abstract
PMID: 20643444