Freezing of movements and its correspondence with MLG1 neuron response to looming stimuli in the crab Neohelice.

Upon visually detecting a moving predator, animals often freeze, i.e. stop moving, to minimize being uncovered and to gather detailed information of the object's movements and properties.

Matched function of the neuropil processing optic flow in flies and crabs: the lobula plate mediates optomotor responses in .

When an animal rotates (whether it is an arthropod, a fish, a bird or a human) a drift of the visual panorama occurs over its retina, termed optic flow. The image is stabilized by compensatory behaviours (driven by the movement of the eyes, head or the whole body depending on the animal) collectively termed optomotor responses. The dipteran lobula plate has been consistently linked with optic flow processing and the control of optomotor responses.

Multielectrode Recordings From Identified Neurons Involved in Visually Elicited Escape Behavior.

A major challenge in current neuroscience is to understand the concerted functioning of distinct neurons involved in a particular behavior. This goal first requires achieving an adequate characterization of the behavior as well as an identification of the key neuronal elements associated with that action. Such conditions have been considerably attained for the escape response to visual stimuli in the crab .