Escape behaviors and its underlying neuronal circuits

Escape behaviors are crucial to survive predator encounters or aversive stimuli. The neural circuits mediating escape behaviors of different animal species have a common framework to trigger extremely fast and robust movement with minimum delay. Thus, the neuronal escape circuits possibly represent functional architectures that perform the most efficient sensory-motor processing in the brain. Here, I review the escape behaviors and underlying neuronal circuits of several invertebrates and fish by focusing on the Mauthner cells, a pair of giant reticulospinal neurons in the hindbrain, that trigger fast escape behavior in goldfish and zebrafish. Language: ja