De Franceschi Gioia, Vivattanasarn Tipok, Saleem Aman B, Solomon Samuel G
Department of Experimental Psychology, Institute of Behavioural Neuroscience, University College London, London WC1H 0AP, UK.
UCL Institute of Ophthalmology, University College London, London EC1V 9EL, UK.
Curr Biol. 2016 Aug 22;26(16):2150-4. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2016.06.006. Epub 2016 Aug 4.
In prey species such as mice, avoidance of predators is key to survival and drives instinctual behaviors like freeze or flight [1, 2]. Sensory signals guide the selection of appropriate behavior [3], and for aerial predators only vision provides useful information. Surprisingly, there is no evidence that vision can guide the selection of escape strategies. Fleeing behavior can be readily triggered by a rapidly looming overhead stimulus [4]. Freezing behavior, however, has previously been induced by real predators or their odors [5]. Here, we discover that a small moving disk, simulating the sweep of a predator cruising overhead, is sufficient to induce freezing response in mice. Looming and sweeping therefore provide visual triggers for opposing flight and freeze behaviors and provide evidence that mice innately make behavioral choices based on vision alone. VIDEO ABSTRACT.
在诸如老鼠之类的猎物物种中，躲避捕食者是生存的关键，并驱动诸如静止不动或逃跑等本能行为[1,2]。感官信号指导着适当行为的选择[3]，而对于空中捕食者而言，只有视觉能提供有用信息。令人惊讶的是，没有证据表明视觉能指导逃跑策略的选择。快速逼近头顶的刺激能轻易触发逃跑行为[4]。然而，静止不动行为此前是由真正的捕食者或其气味诱发的[5]。在此，我们发现一个模拟捕食者在头顶盘旋扫视的小移动圆盘足以在小鼠中诱发静止不动反应。因此，逼近和扫视为相反的逃跑和静止不动行为提供了视觉触发因素，并证明小鼠仅基于视觉就能本能地做出行为选择。视频摘要。
