Mauthner cell

The Mauthner cells are a pair of big and easily identifiable neurons (one for each half of the body) located in the rhombomere 4 of the hindbrain in fish and amphibians that are responsible for a very fast escape reflex (in the majority of animals – a so-called C-start response). The cells are also notable for their unusual use of both chemical and electrical synapses. Mauthner cells first appear in lampreys (being absent in hagfish and lancelets), and are present in virtually all teleost fish, as well as in amphibians (including postmetamorphic frogs and toads). Some fish, such as lumpsuckers, seem to have lost the Mauthner cells however. A C-start is a type of a very quick startle or escape reflex that is employed by fish and amphibians (including larval frogs and toads). There are two sequential stages in the C-start: first, the head rotates about the center of mass towards the direction of future escape, and the body of the animal exhibits a curvature that resembles a letter C; then, at the second stage, the animal is propelled forward. The duration of these stages varies from species to species from about 10 to 20 ms for the first stage, and from 20 to 30 ms for the second. In fish this forward propulsion does not require contraction of the antagonistic muscle, but results from the body stiffness and the hydrodynamic resistance of the tail. When an antagonistic muscular contraction does occur during stage 2, the fish rotates in the opposite direction, producing a counter-turn, and a directional change. In cases when an abrupt acoustic, tactile or visual stimulus elicits a single action potential in one M-cell, it always correlates with a contralateral C-start escape. An extremely quick mutual feedback inhibitory circuit then assures that only one M-cell reaches spiking threshold—as the C-start has to be unilateral by definition—and that only one action potential is fired. The Mauthner cell-mediated C-start reflex is very quick, with about 5-10 ms latency between the acoustic/tactile stimulus and the Mauthner cell discharge, and only about 2 ms between the discharge and the unilateral muscle contraction.