Figure 1

Scheme of the primary startle pathway in rats and mice. Acoustic or tactile information is conveyed by only two serial types of sensory neurons in each pathway to the caudal pontine reticular nucleus (PnC). Here, synapses of secondary sensory neurons converge onto giant neurons that form the sensorimotor interface of the startle response. Axons of the PnC giant neurons directly project onto motorneurons in the facial nucleus or spinal cord. In the electrophysiological experiments of the present study, axons of the secondary sensory neurons were stimulated by extracellular electrodes, while patch clamp recordings were performed from PnC giant neurons in rat and mouse brain slices.