Abstract:  Startle reflection has been widely used in emotional research because of its sensitivity of emotional valence, individual status and individual susceptibility. It is also easy to carry out and it can directly induce, record and quantify data. The subjective influence on startle reflection is weak too. In the general emotion study, startle reflection show differences in the different emotional valence, between different types of individual characteristics. In the field of emotional disorders research, startle reflection can be used to distinguish between anxiety, depression and so on. It also can be used to predict some emotional disorders and evaluate the effect of treatment. The results of neural mechanism about startle reflection have shown that it is associated with amygdala and Bed Nucleus of the Stria Terminalis. In the future, researchers can expand the research community and application direction, so that startle reflection can better facilitate the study of emotions.

Key words: Startle reflection, emotion, emotional disorder, neural mechanism