The mauthner-initiated startle response in teleost fish

Abstract

1. A characteristic behaviour, the ‘Mauthner-initiated startle response’, was recorded and quantitatively analysed with high-speed cinematography (200 frames/sec) after vibrational stimulation in 11 of 13 teleost species which possess Mauthner cells. 2. The latency of the response is 5–10 msec. This behaviour has: (a) an initial phase, the ‘fast-body-bend’, lasting about 20 msec and consisting of a stereotyped displacement of the head and tail to one side and (b), a second phase, the ‘return-flip’, consisting of a non-stereotyped flip of the tail to the opposite side. 3. Within 100 msec after the start of the Mauthner-initiated startle response, most fish were displaced 0-5-1-5 body lengths from their initial position. The variability of the animal's location after 100 msec suggests that the behaviour is adaptively non-predictable; 4. In goldfish, the Mauthner-initiated startle response could also be elicited by visual stimulation. 5. We conclude that the fast-body-bend is the direct result of activation of one Mauthner cell and its spinal motor neurone pool. 6. In four species we described examples of apparently non-Mauthner initiated startle responses.

Vision and sensorimotor defects associated with loss of Vps11 function in a zebrafish model of genetic leukoencephalopathy

“…A recent study demonstrated that wild-type zebrafish larvae exhibit a classic habituation response to multiple acoustic/tap stimuli by 5dpf 14 , reinforcing previous work from the 1970s that first used zebrafish to study this basic form of learning 44 , 45 . As an initial assessment of higher circuit development in our mutant lines, we tested their habituation response to series of acoustic taps at 7dpf (Fig.…”

A norepinephrine‐dependent glial calcium wave travels in the spinal cord upon acoustovestibular stimuli

“…We used AV stimulation via pressure-application of aCSF in the otic vesicle to induce stereotypical escape responses (Böhm et al, 2016;Lacoste et al, 2015;Pantoja et al, 2017). In freely-swimming and free-tailed fish, AV stimuli induce an escape response starting with a fast and powerful contralateral C-bend relying on motor neurons to move away from the threat (Domenici & Hale, 2019;Eaton et al, 1977;Eaton et al, 1991, Eaton et al, 1981. In agar-restrained larval zebrafish, AV stimulation elicited a bilateral contraction of the tail typically lasting more than 1 s after the stimulus (Figure 1a, Movie S1), likely reflecting a C-bend followed by a struggle.…”

GABAAα Subunit Control of Hyperactive Behavior in Developing Zebrafish

“…Because acoustic and light responses are either absent or less robust at these early developmental stages, light touch was used to induce escape response swimming behavior. At both 48 and 96 hpf, larvae respond to light touch to the head with a well-characterized C-start, which consists of an initial C-shaped body bend to reorient the animal away from the touch stimulus, followed by loweramplitude body undulations that propel it several body lengths away (Eaton et al 1977;Granato et al 1996;O'Malley et al 1996;Eaton et al 2001;Kohashi et al 2012). After PTZ exposure, hyperactive behavior is observed, and two prominent aspects of swimming performance are altered similar to older fish: larvae performed longer duration escape responses and these responses are interspersed with multiple C-shaped body bends (Figure 1; Supplementary Movies 1 and 2).…”