Neural Mechanisms of Startle Behavior

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xix

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2. Comparative Neuroethology of Startle, Rapid Escape, and Giant Fiber-Mediated Responses

   • Theodore Holmes Bullock

   Pages 1-13

3. Fast Pathways and Escape Behavior in Cnidaria

   • George O. Mackie

   Pages 15-42

4. Escape Reflexes in Earthworms and Other Annelids

   • Charles D. Drewes

   Pages 43-91

5. The Cockroach Escape Response

   • Roy E. Ritzmann

   Pages 93-131

6. The Drosophila Giant Fiber System

   • Robert J. Wyman, John B. Thomas, Lawrence Salkoff, David G. King

   Pages 133-161

7. Escape Behavior of the Locust

   • Keir G. Pearson, Michael O’Shea

   Pages 163-178

8. The Production of Crayfish Tailflip Escape Responses

   • Franklin B. Krasne, Jeffrey J. Wine

   Pages 179-211

9. The Role of the Mauthner Cell in Fast-Starts Involving Escape in Teleost Fishes

   • Robert C. Eaton, John T. Hackett

   Pages 213-266

10. Methodological Factors in the Behavioral Analysis of Startle

    • Howard S. Hoffman

    Pages 267-285

11. The Mammalian Startle Response

    • Michael Davis

    Pages 287-351

12. Escapism

    • Michael V. L. Bennett

    Pages 353-363

13. Back Matter

    Pages 365-377

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In the past fifteen years there has been considerable interest in neural circuits that initiate behavior patterns. For many types of behaviors, this involves decision-making circuits whose primary elements are neither purely sensory nor motor, but represent a higher order of neural pro­ cessing. Of the large number of studies on such systems, analyses of startle circuits compose a major portion, and have been carried out on systems found throughout the animal kingdom. Startle has been an im­ portant model because of the reliability of the behavioral act for laboratory study and the accessibility of the underlying neural circuitry. However, probably because of the breadth of the subject, this material has never been reviewed in a comprehensive way that presents the elements com­ mon to startle circuits in the different animal systems in which they occur. This book presents a diversity of approaches based on a broad back­ ground of animal groups ranging from the earliest nervous systems in cnidarians to the most recently evolved and advanced in mammals. The behaviors themselves are all short latency, fast motor acts, when consid­ ered on the time scale of the organism, and involve avoidance or evasion, although in some cases we do not yet completely understand their natural role. These behaviors occur in response to stimuli that have sudden or unexpected onset.

• Drosophila
• Nervous System
• behavior
• cell
• decision-making
• neural mechanisms

• Behavioral Biology Group, Department of Biology, E.P.O., University of Colorado, Boulder, USA

  Robert C. Eaton

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