A New Standard for Performance, Reliability and Ease of Use in Startle Reflex Assays!

When we began development of our Startle Reflex system, we were determined to set a new standard for performance, reliability and ease of use. After several years of extensive design and development, we finally reached that goal! Our design staff of 4 engineering professionals used their combined experience of over 40 years to create this rugged and innovative new system. As a result, it is with great pride and excitement that we offer the Startle Reflex system for your consideration!

As you investigate our Startle Reflex system, you will notice Key Features listed below. These features describe how our Startle Reflex system reaches the highest performance standard. We invite you to make detailed comparisons between our Startle Reflex system and any others available, at least those that will provide you actual performance specifications of their system! The specifications for our Startle Reflex system are not merely “obtainable” characteristics you might find offered by other systems.  Instead, these are specifications we test each system to meet!  As a result, with the Kinder Scientific Startle Reflex system, you get the best system available!  It’s About the Data!!

Here’s a link to a seminar describing advances implemented in Kinder Scientific’s Startle Reflex Assay:

Superior Sound Attenuation
Our cabinets have set the industry high mark with 10dB greater attenuation factor over all other systems. This critical characteristic is one of the primary reasons our system is capable of sound pressure control at 57dB. In the past the background sound levels used in classic publications has been 70dB. This has not been because scientists did not want to use lower values but because the attenuation was insufficient to allow it. With these startle cabinets you can use much lower sound pressures for background.

The overall cabinet design contains sufficient mass for a stable platform. With a weight of over 70 pounds the assembly creates significant stationary inertia. An additional characteristic is our specially designed fan circuit which uses a “quick start” voltage to get the fan started and then scale back to produce the proper ventilation when minimum fan noise. Slower fan speed, less noise.

StartleMonitor™ Host Software

Our StartleMonitor software has been modeled after our popular MotorMonitor program with concise yet flexible input screens. As shown here we have created a single input screen where you will set up your entire session. You can input session parameters, order your trial list, input subject information, and finally run any desired session you choose from this one screen! Quickly reduce data to a comma delimited file that is ready to input into a graphing or spreadsheet program.

NEW StartleMonitor Measures Include:
• Base Line Activity (Up to 250ms of subject activity prior to the record window)
• Latency to Onset – this is in addition to the latency to peak.
• Frequency of Response
• Both Negative and Positive Peaks and their accompanying latencies
• RMS Average – expanding on simple average to help provide a better understanding of the power of each response
• Rise Time of Response

Classic Measures:
• Peak Response
• Average Response
• Latency to Peak

Highly Accurate Sound Pressure Control
The StartleMonitor system controls sound pressure to +/- 1dB. That accuracy is present from 57dB to 120dB and consistent from chamber to chamber. It is the only system that even provides you with a specification, let alone one that is this tight.

Quick and Easy Access to Data
Once all sessions are complete for a study it is a simple and quick task to select each file in that study and have the data reduced into a single file for analysis.

Key Features:

Superior Sound Attenuation!
Our cabinets set the industry high mark with 10 dB greater attenuation factor over all other systems! This critical characteristic is one of the primary reasons our system is capable of sound pressure control at 57 dB. In the past, the background sound levels used in classic publications has been 70 dB. This has not been because scientists did not want to use lower values but because the attenuation was insufficient to allow it. With Kinder Scientific’s startle reflex cabinets, you can use much lower sound pressures for background.

Superior Acoustic Design to minimize variability
Startle research has long had the reputation for high subject to subject variability. Acoustic startle responses are tied directly to the accuracy of the noise stimulus and the quality of the ambient noise control. We designed our system with a high precision circuit providing +/- 1 db accuracy at all points of the scale (57-120 db) and +/- 2 db accuracy from chamber to chamber!

35 decibels of attenuation!
Our cabinets have the highest sound attenuation available on the market. The closest competition provides only 22-25 db. Recall that decibels are a logarithmic scale with 10 decibels representing an increase or decrease in amplitude of about three times. So, an additional 10 db of attenuation means our startle chambers are about three times as quiet as our competitors! Obviously, three times attenuation is very significant!

No acoustic calibration or strange tables to create or use.
Simple and direct! Because our our attenuation is so high, you are able to use noise levels down to 57 db! You will no longer be limited to 65 db as a lower limit. (The reason most publications report 65 or 70 db as a background is NOT because the science prefers that level; it is because that is all the attenuation all systems but ours can produce!) And our system is factory calibrated so all you need do is enter the desired db level. No calibration tables are needed for each station nor do you use an arbitrary number table as with some systems; you simply enter the level you want and that’s it!

A Simple Windows based system.
This simple system architecture ultimately means less effort for you during startup! Simply connect a single cable from our Behavior System Core (BSC) to your PC and you’re ready to go! To add stations, just connect one cable to your computer and one to each additional station you buy. We’ve eliminated the ‘rats nest’ of cables typically needed for all the signals!

Open Rat Restrainer


Closed Rat and Mouse Restrainers

Unique restraint design
Our unique design removes stress on the animal induced by older tube methods. Older systems place animals into tubes that have long been known to create stress in the animals. Our unique restraint design holds the animal consistently over the sensing transducer while still providing the animal an ample sensation of freedom of movement. The key design feature is the open ceiling that allows the animal increased headroom while preserving the animal’s feeling of constraint and safety all without permitting ambulations. In addition, the unique design facilitates optogenetic and microdialysis tethers!!

Calibrated in Newtons, not arbitrary units!
We were the first in the industry to use a load cell to measure the test animal’s startle response. Using a load cell allows us to measure and determine the animal response in milliNewtons. Now you can be confident when comparing your studies; there is no longer a concern over what the system was originally set to or how your data compares to other data. Additionally, the stability of the system is high enough to reduce the number of times you have to check the calibration.

Compact cabinet to help save your lab space.
We realize how hard it is to come by lab space!  So, we made a special effort to design our cabinet to be the smallest available. You can place almost twice as many cabinets in the same space as our closest competitor and still have a system that outperforms them all!

Higher throughput with less cleaning time!
We paid close attenuation to the comments of experienced technicians and researchers who suffered for years with cleaning problems. Active labs reported spending over 1 full hour each day just for cleaning for large systems. We designed a unique bathtub design for the restrainers to gather and contain waste. For cleaning, you simply remove the restrainer, open it and rinse it out under running water and you ready to proceed with the next session.

Easy to use Windows based software.
We model our Startle Monitor software after our popular MotorMonitor program, with concise yet flexible input screens. As a result, we have a single input screen from which you will do almost all of your work:. input session parameters, order your trial lists, input subject information, edit trials, edit sessions and run any desired session you choose!

Stable Platform.
The overall cabinet design contains sufficient mass for a stable platform. With a weight of over 70 pounds, the assembly creates significant stationary inertia.

Quiet Fan.
Our specially designed fan circuit uses a “quick start” voltage to get the fan started and then scale back to produce the proper ventilation with minimum fan noise. Slower fan speed = less noise.

Hardware Specifications:

Acoustic Performance

● Full spectrum White Noise: -35 dB +/- 1 dB
● Chamber to Chamber variation: +/- 1 dB
● Cabinet Isolation +/- 2 dB

Response Performance:
● Load Cell Sensing Assembly Calibrated and Reported in Newtons +/- 2% full scale

Control Circuitry & Software:
● Independent Control Chassis (no pc card to install)
● Simple ethernet or RS232 Serial communication
● Station connection – via a single parallel cable
● Windows 7 Pro or Windows 10 Pro Platform

Physical characteristics:
● Compact Cabinet Design 14″ (35.56 cm) wide x 10.875″ (27.62 cm) deep by 19.5″ (49.53 cm) high
● Weight: 35 lbs (15.88 kg)
● Cabinet built from High Quality Laminate and MDF
Animal Restrainers:
● Easy-to-use restrainers
● Stress free design (no tubes)

Ordering Information:

BSC-100 – Behavioral System Core
SM1000-II – Startle II Station
SM2001LC – Rat Startle Load Cell Restrainer
SM2001LCL – Large Rat Startle Load Cell Restrainer
SM2002LC – Mouse Startle Load Cell Restrainer
SM2004LC – Juvenile Rat Startle Load Cell Restrainer
SMG-M-II – Startle II Mouse Grid
SMG-R-II – Startle II Rat Grid
SMTAC – Startle Tactile Option
DSCK – Dual Output Scramble Shocker

SMSPL – Startle Monitor Sound Pressure Meter

SMLP – High Intensity LED Option for Startle