Burnovicz Ana, Oliva Damian, Hermitte Gabriela
Laboratorio de Neurobiología de la Memoria, Departamento de Fisiología, Biología Molecular y Celular, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad de Buenos Aires, IFIBYNE-CONICET, Buenos Aires 1428, Argentina.
J Exp Biol. 2009 Jan;212(Pt 2):313-24. doi: 10.1242/jeb.022459.
When an animal's observable behavior remains unaltered, one can be misled in determining whether it is able to sense an environmental cue. By measuring an index of the internal state, additional information about perception may be obtained. We studied the cardiac response of the crab Chasmagnathus to different stimulus modalities: a light pulse, an air puff, virtual looming stimuli and a real visual danger stimulus. The first two did not trigger observable behavior, but the last two elicited a clear escape response. We examined the changes in heart rate upon sensory stimulation. Cardiac response and escape response latencies were also measured and compared during looming stimuli presentation. The cardiac parameters analyzed revealed significant changes (cardio-inhibitory responses) to all the stimuli investigated. We found a clear correlation between escape and cardiac response latencies to different looming stimuli. This study proved useful to examine the perceptual capacity independently of behavior. In addition, the correlation found between escape and cardiac responses support previous results which showed that in the face of impending danger the crab triggers several coordinated defensive reactions. The ability to escape predation or to be alerted to subtle changes in the environment in relation to autonomic control is associated with the complex ability to integrate sensory information as well as motor output to target tissues. This ;fear, fight or flight' response gives support to the idea of an autonomic-like reflexive control in crustaceans.
当动物的可观察行为保持不变时，人们在判断其是否能够感知环境线索时可能会产生误解。通过测量内部状态指标，可以获得有关感知的更多信息。我们研究了招潮蟹对不同刺激方式的心脏反应：光脉冲、吹气、虚拟逼近刺激和真实视觉危险刺激。前两种刺激不会引发可观察到的行为，但后两种刺激会引发明显的逃避反应。我们研究了感觉刺激时心率的变化。在呈现逼近刺激期间，还测量并比较了心脏反应和逃避反应的潜伏期。分析的心脏参数显示，对所有研究的刺激都有显著变化（心脏抑制反应）。我们发现，对不同逼近刺激的逃避反应潜伏期与心脏反应潜伏期之间存在明显的相关性。这项研究证明，独立于行为来研究感知能力是有用的。此外，逃避反应与心脏反应之间的相关性支持了先前的结果，即面对迫在眉睫的危险时，螃蟹会触发几种协调的防御反应。逃避捕食或对与自主控制相关的环境细微变化保持警觉的能力，与整合感觉信息以及向目标组织输出运动的复杂能力有关。这种“恐惧、战斗或逃跑”反应支持了甲壳类动物存在类似自主反射控制的观点。
