Short-lead prepulse inhibition and long-lead prepulse facilitation
of startle are greater during attended than ignored prestimuli.
The present work examined whether this attentional modification
is influenced by monetary incentive. Participants (43 college
students) were randomly assigned to receive a small
performance-based monetary incentive or were instructed to try
their best. The task was to judge the duration of tones of one
of two pitches during a series of 48 tones. Prepulse inhibition
of startle eyeblink EMG was assessed at 60, 120, and 240 ms,
and prepulse facilitation was assessed at 4,500 ms following
tone onset. Short-lead percent prepulse inhibition was greater
during attended than ignored prestimuli only at 120 ms among
paid participants. Long-lead prepulse facilitation was greater
for attended than ignored tones, but this effect did not vary
with incentive condition. This study demonstrates that attentional
modification of short-lead prepulse inhibition is sensitive
to a monetary incentive and provides a basis for further
examination of motivational effects on early attentional processing.