scholarly journals Evolution of the acoustic startle response of Mexican cavefish

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandra Paz ◽  
Brittnee McDole ◽  
Johanna E. Kowalko ◽  
Erik R. Duboue ◽  
Alex C. Keene
Keyword(s):  
Escape Response ◽  
Escape Behavior ◽  
Acoustic Startle ◽  
Acoustic Startle Response ◽  
Response Probability ◽  
Neural Mechanism ◽  
Angular Speed ◽  
Bend Angle ◽  
Sensory Stimuli ◽  
Reflexive Behavior

AbstractThe ability to detect threatening sensory stimuli and initiate an escape response is essential for survival and under stringent evolutionary pressure. In diverse fish species, acoustic stimuli activate Mauthner neurons, which initiate a stereotypical C-start escape response. This reflexive behavior is highly conserved across aquatic species and provides a model for investigating the neural mechanism underlying the evolution of escape behavior. Here, we define evolved differences in the C-start response between populations of the Mexican cavefish, Astyanax mexicanus. Cave populations of A. mexicanus inhabit in an environment devoid of light and macroscopic predation, resulting in evolved differences in diverse morphological and behavioral traits. We find that the C-start is present in multiple populations of cavefish and river-dwelling surface fish, but response kinematics and probability differ between populations. The Pachón population of cavefish have an increased response probability, a slower response and reduction of the maximum bend angle, revealing evolved differences between surface and cave populations. In two other independently evolved populations of cavefish, the response probability and the kinematics of the response differ from one another, as well as from surface fish, suggesting the independent evolution of differences in the C-start response. Investigation of surface-cave hybrids reveals a relationship between angular speed and peak angle, suggesting these two kinematic characteristics are related at the genetic or functional levels. Together, these findings provide support for the use of A. mexicanus as a model to investigate the evolution of escape behavior.

scholarly journals The neuroethology of acoustic startle and escape in flying insects

1989 ◽  
Vol 146 (1) ◽  
pp. 287-306 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Hoy ◽  
T. Nolen ◽  
P. Brodfuehrer
Keyword(s):  
Escape Response ◽  
Escape Behavior ◽  
Sexual Communication ◽  
Acoustic Startle ◽  
Field Studies ◽  
Flight Behavior ◽  
Field Cricket ◽  
Predator Detection ◽  
Flying Insects ◽  
The Brain

The acoustic startle/escape response is a phylogenetically widespread behavioral act, provoked by an intense, unexpected sound. At least six orders of insects have evolved tympanate ears that serve acoustic behavior that ranges from sexual communication to predator detection. Insects that fly at night are vulnerable to predation by insectivorous bats that detect and locate their prey by using biosonar signals. Of the six orders of insects that possess tympanate hearing organs, four contain species that fly at night and, in these, hearing is sensitive to a range of ultrasonic frequencies found in the biosonar signals of bats. Laboratory and field studies have shown that these insects (including some orthopterans, lepidopterans, neuropterans and dictyopterans), when engaged in flight behavior, respond to ultrasound by suddenly altering their flight, showing acoustic startle or negative phonotaxis, which serve as bat-avoidance behavior. A neural analysis of ultrasound-mediated escape behavior was undertaken in the field cricket Telegryllus oceanicus. An identified thoracic interneuron, int-1, was shown to trigger the escape response, but only when the cell was driven (synaptically or electrically) at high spike rates, and only when the insect was performing flight behavior; avoidance steering only occurs in the appropriate behavioral context: flight. Thus, significant constraints operate upon the ability of int-1 to trigger the escape response. The integration of auditory input and flight central pattern generator output occurs in the brain. It is found that neural activity descending from the brain in response to stimulation by ultrasound is increased when the insect is flying compared to when it is not. Although the behavioral act of avoidance steering may appear to be a simple reflex act, further analysis shows it to be anything but simple.

scholarly journals Genetic Determinants of Gating Functions: Do We Get Closer to Understanding Schizophrenia Etiopathogenesis?

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rastislav Rovný ◽  
Dominika Besterciová ◽  
Igor Riečanský
Keyword(s):  
Prepulse Inhibition ◽  
Association Studies ◽  
Acoustic Startle ◽  
Acoustic Startle Response ◽  
Genetic Association Studies ◽  
Sensorimotor Gating ◽  
Sensory Gating ◽  
Eligibility Criteria ◽  
Level Of Evidence ◽  
Sensory Stimuli

Deficits in the gating of sensory stimuli, i.e., the ability to suppress the processing of irrelevant sensory input, are considered to play an important role in the pathogenesis of several neuropsychiatric disorders, in particular schizophrenia. Gating is disrupted both in schizophrenia patients and their unaffected relatives, suggesting that gating deficit may represent a biomarker associated with a genetic liability to the disorder. To assess the strength of the evidence for the etiopathogenetic links between genetic variation, gating efficiency, and schizophrenia, we carried out a systematic review of human genetic association studies of sensory gating (suppression of the P50 component of the auditory event-related brain potential) and sensorimotor gating (prepulse inhibition of the acoustic startle response). Sixty-three full-text articles met the eligibility criteria for inclusion in the review. In total, 117 genetic variants were reported to be associated with gating functions: 33 variants for sensory gating, 80 variants for sensorimotor gating, and four variants for both sensory and sensorimotor gating. However, only five of these associations (four for prepulse inhibition—CHRNA3 rs1317286, COMT rs4680, HTR2A rs6311, and TCF4 rs9960767, and one for P50 suppression—CHRNA7 rs67158670) were consistently replicated in independent samples. Although these variants and genes were all implicated in schizophrenia in research studies, only two polymorphisms (HTR2A rs6311 and TCF4 rs9960767) were also reported to be associated with schizophrenia at a meta-analytic or genome-wide level of evidence. Thus, although gating is widely considered as an important endophenotype of schizophrenia, these findings demonstrate that evidence for a common genetic etiology of impaired gating functions and schizophrenia is yet unsatisfactory, warranting further studies in this field.

Experience-dependent modification of ultrasound auditory processing in a cricket escape response

1999 ◽  
Vol 202 (20) ◽  
pp. 2797-2806 ◽  
Author(s):  
J.E. Engel ◽  
R.R. Hoy
Keyword(s):  
Auditory Processing ◽  
Startle Response ◽  
Escape Response ◽  
Dynamic Range ◽  
Acoustic Startle ◽  
Acoustic Startle Response ◽  
Neural Substrates ◽  
Contralateral Side ◽  
Lateral Direction ◽  
Dependent Modification

The ultrasound acoustic startle response (ASR) of crickets (Teleogryllus oceanicus) is a defense against echolocating bats. The ASR to a test pulse can be habituated by a train of ultrasound prepulses. We found that this conditioning paradigm modified both the gain and the lateral direction of the startle response. Habituation reduced the slope of the intensity/response relationship but did not alter stimulus threshold, so habituation extended the dynamic range of the ASR to higher stimulus intensities. Prepulses from the side (90 degrees or 270 degrees azimuth) had a priming effect upon the lateral direction of the ASR, increasing the likelihood that test pulses from the front (between −22 degrees and +22 degrees) would evoke responses towards the same side as prepulse-induced responses. The plasticity revealed by these experiments could alter the efficacy of the ASR as an escape response and might indicate experience-dependent modification of auditory perception. We also examined stimulus control of habituation by prepulse intensity or direction. Only suprathreshold prepulses induced habituation. Prepulses from one side habituated the responses to test pulses from either the ipsilateral or contralateral side, but habituation was strongest for the prepulse-ipsilateral side. We suggest that habituation of the ASR occurs in the brain, after the point in the pathway where the threshold is mediated, and that directional priming results from a second process of plasticity distinct from that underlying habituation. These inferences bring us a step closer to identifying the neural substrates of plasticity in the ASR pathway.

The Acoustic Startle Response and Disruption of Aiming. 2. Modulation by Forewarning and Preliminary Stimuli

1989 ◽  
Author(s):  
John A. Foss ◽  
James R. Ison ◽  
James P. Torre ◽  
Wansack Jr ◽  
Samuel
Keyword(s):  
Startle Response ◽  
Acoustic Startle ◽  
Acoustic Startle Response

Impaired sensorimotor gating of the acoustic startle response in the prodrome of schizophrenia

2008 ◽  
Vol 23 ◽  
pp. S70 ◽  
Author(s):  
B.B. Quednow ◽  
I. Frommann ◽  
J. Berning ◽  
K.U. Kühn ◽  
W. Maier ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Startle Response ◽  
Acoustic Startle ◽  
Acoustic Startle Response ◽  
Sensorimotor Gating

5-HT2Areceptor antagonism by MDL 11,939 during inescapable stress prevents subsequent exaggeration of acoustic startle response and reduced body weight in rats

2009 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 289-297 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaolong Jiang ◽  
Zhang-jin Zhang ◽  
Steven Zhang ◽  
Eleanore H Gamble ◽  
Min Jia ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Body Weight ◽  
Startle Response ◽  
Acoustic Startle ◽  
Acoustic Startle Response ◽  
Reduced Body ◽  
Mdl 11,939

Structural brain correlates of prepulse inhibition of the acoustic startle response in healthy humans

NeuroImage ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 1052-1058 ◽  
Author(s):  
Veena Kumari ◽  
Elena Antonova ◽  
Elizabeth Zachariah ◽  
Adrian Galea ◽  
Ingrid Aasen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Prepulse Inhibition ◽  
Startle Response ◽  
Acoustic Startle ◽  
Acoustic Startle Response ◽  
Healthy Humans ◽  
Brain Correlates ◽  
Structural Brain

P.6.080 Nitric oxide and dopamine interaction on prepulse inhibition of the acoustic startle response of rate

2004 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
pp. S390-S391
Author(s):  
C. Salum ◽  
F.S. Guimaraes ◽  
M.L. Brandao ◽  
E.A. Del Bel
Keyword(s):  
Nitric Oxide ◽  
Prepulse Inhibition ◽  
Startle Response ◽  
Acoustic Startle ◽  
Acoustic Startle Response
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