The Mauthner Cell Half a Century Later: A Neurobiological Model for Decision-Making?

Korn, Henri; Faber, Donald S.

doi:10.1016/j.neuron.2005.05.019

Cited by 414 publications

(384 citation statements)

References 166 publications

(8 reference statements)

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“…Although tentacled snakes can make an explosive strike with remarkable speed (14,49), fish are expert escape artists with a wellstudied neural circuitry that mediates high-speed evasion of predators (50)(51)(52)(53). The fish C-start escape response has an onset latency of only about 7 ms from the detection of a water disturbance and begins with a C-shaped bend of the body followed by propulsion away from the predator.…”

Section: Turning the Tables On Fishmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evolution of brains and behavior for optimal foraging: A tale of two predators

Catania

2012

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Star-nosed moles and tentacled snakes have exceptional mechanosensory systems that illustrate a number of general features of nervous system organization and evolution. Star-nosed moles use the star for active touch-rapidly scanning the environment with the nasal rays. The star has the densest concentration of mechanoreceptors described for any mammal, with a central tactile fovea magnified in anatomically visible neocortical modules. The somatosensory system parallels visual system organization, illustrating general features of high-resolution sensory representations. Starnosed moles are the fastest mammalian foragers, able to identify and eat small prey in 120 ms. Optimal foraging theory suggests that the star evolved for profitably exploiting small invertebrates in a competitive wetland environment. The tentacled snake's facial appendages are superficially similar to the mole's nasal rays, but they have a very different function. These snakes are fully aquatic and use tentacles for passive detection of nearby fish. Trigeminal afferents respond to water movements and project tentacle information to the tectum in alignment with vision, illustrating a general theme for the integration of different sensory modalities. Tentacled snakes act as rare enemies, taking advantage of fish C-start escape responses by startling fish toward their strike-often aiming for the future location of escaping fish. By turning fish escapes to their advantage, snakes increase strike success and reduce handling time with head-first captures. The latter may, in turn, prevent snakes from becoming prey when feeding. Findings in these two unusual predators emphasize the importance of a multidisciplinary approach for understanding the evolution of brains and behavior.neocortex | neuroethology S tar-nosed moles and tentacled snakes each have novel sensory appendages protruding from their faces. These appendages give both animals a unique appearance unparalleled among their peers-no other mammal or snake has comparable appendages ( Fig. 1). However, there is more than the bizarre appearance of these animals to attract our attention. Extreme sensory specializations often reveal general principles of nervous system function and organization that are less obvious in other species (1-7). More generally, extremes in morphology provide informative case studies in evolutionary biology. Indeed, Darwin (8) devoted a special section of On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection to "Organs of extreme perfection and complication." One can argue whether these unusual species seem in some way perfected, but surprisingly, the complexity of the mole's star has been cited as evidence of a divine creator (9).My goal is to review recent studies of these two species beginning with star-nosed moles, the species for which we have the most information from many years of study. The mole's nose is exceptional not only in appearance but also in the high density of mechanoreceptors that covers the nasal rays and the complexity of the modular neocortical net...

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Section: Turning the Tables On Fishmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evolution of brains and behavior for optimal foraging: A tale of two predators

Catania

2012

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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“…Mauthner (M) cells, a bilateral pair of large reticulospinal neurons in the brainstem, play an important role in initiating an escape: a single spike in one of the M-cells triggers an escape toward the contralateral side (Nissanov et al, 1990;Eaton et al, 2001;Korn and Faber, 2005). During Mauthner-triggered escapes, motoneurons on the side of the escape bend are activated, while those on the opposite side are almost simultaneously inhibited (Yasargil and Diamond, 1968).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Differences in laterality of the stimuli used in the different experiments could explain the difference in frequency. In addition, adult fish may have better ability to detect slight laterality by using multiple layers of inhibitory circuits in the hindbrain (Korn and Faber, 2005). It is important to note, however, that many of the inhibitory circuits, including reciprocal inhibitions of the two M-cells, are already functional in 5 dpf zebrafish larvae (Takahashi et al, 2002).…”

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confidence: 99%

Functional Role of a Specialized Class of Spinal Commissural Inhibitory Neurons during Fast Escapes in Zebrafish

Satou¹,

Kimura²,

Kohashi³

et al. 2009

J. Neurosci.

143

157

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In teleost fish, the Mauthner (M) cell, a large reticulospinal neuron in the brainstem, triggers escape behavior. Spinal commissural inhibitory interneurons that are electrotonically excited by the M-axon have been identified, but the behavioral roles of these neurons have not yet been addressed. Here, we studied these neurons, named CoLo (commissural local), in larval zebrafish using an enhancer-trap line in which the entire population of CoLos was visualized by green fluorescent protein. CoLos were present at one cell per hemi-segment. Electrophysiological recordings showed that an M-spike evoked a spike in CoLos via electrotonic transmission and that CoLos made monosynaptic inhibitory connections onto contralateral primary motoneurons, consistent with the results in adult goldfish. We further showed that CoLos were active only during escapes. We examined the behavioral roles of CoLos by investigating escape behaviors in CoLo-ablated larvae. The results showed that the escape behaviors evoked by sound/vibration stimuli were often impaired with a reduced initial bend of the body, indicating that CoLos play important roles in initiating escapes. We obtained several lines of evidence that strongly suggested that the impaired escapes occurred during bilateral activation of the M-cells: in normal larvae, CoLo-mediated inhibitory circuits enable animals to perform escapes even in these occasions by silencing the output of the slightly delayed firing of the second M-cell. This study illustrates (1) a clear example of the behavioral role of a specialized class of interneurons and (2) the capacity of the spinal circuits to filter descending commands and thereby produce the appropriate behavior.

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“…Zebrafish larvae, like larvae of other fish species, have a rapid escape response network formed by a small set of early-born primary neurons including the Mauthner neuron, which resides in the hindbrain and projects a large diameter axon contrallaterally down the spinal cord (Eaton et al, 2001;Korn and Faber, 2005). Numerous studies have addressed the genetic mechanisms that direct development of zebrafish primary neurons (Lewis and Eisen, 2003).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

nkx2.2apromotes specification and differentiation of a myelinating subset of oligodendrocyte lineage cells in zebrafish

2008

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During development, multipotent neural precursors give rise to oligodendrocyte progenitor cells (OPCs), which migrate and divide to produce additional OPCs. Near the end of embryogenesis and during postnatal stages, many OPCs stop dividing and differentiate as myelinating oligodendrocytes, whereas others persist as nonmyelinating cells. Investigations of oligodendrocyte development in mice indicated that the Nkx2.2 transcription factor both limits the number of OPCs that are formed and subsequently promotes their differentiation, raising the possibility that Nkx2.2 plays a key role in determining myelinating versus nonmyelinating fate. We used in vivo time-lapse imaging and loss-of-function experiments in zebrafish to further explore formation and differentiation of oligodendrocyte lineage cells. Our data show that newly specified OPCs are heterogeneous with respect to gene expression and fate. Whereas some OPCs express the nkx2.2a gene and differentiate as oligodendrocytes, others that do not express nkx2.2a mostly remain as nonmyelinating OPCs. Similarly to mouse, loss of nkx2.2a function results in excess OPCs and delayed oligodendrocyte differentiation. Notably, excess OPCs are formed as a consequence of prolonged OPC production from neural precursor cells. We conclude that Nkx2.2 promotes timely specification and differentiation of myelinating oligodendrocyte lineage cells from species representing different vertebrate taxa.

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The Mauthner Cell Half a Century Later: A Neurobiological Model for Decision-Making?

Cited by 414 publications

References 166 publications

Evolution of brains and behavior for optimal foraging: A tale of two predators

Evolution of brains and behavior for optimal foraging: A tale of two predators

Functional Role of a Specialized Class of Spinal Commissural Inhibitory Neurons during Fast Escapes in Zebrafish

nkx2.2apromotes specification and differentiation of a myelinating subset of oligodendrocyte lineage cells in zebrafish

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