Natural behavior requires flexible adjustments, for example when navigating complex environments or escaping predators. Previously, whole-brain recordings in C. elegans uncovered that a large proportion of neuronal activity relates to motor commands. However, the role of these distributed motor commands remains elusive.Here, we investigate changes in a C. elegans motor behavior and the corresponding distributed dynamics upon an environmental change. We find that environments that make movement more difficult provoke longer backwards movement, so-called “reversals”. Importantly, this prolongation in behavior coincides with persistent activity of a large community of neurons including reversal interneurons and motor command neurons. Utilizing single-cell-resolution whole-brain recordings in both immobilized and freely moving animals, we found a group of sensory neurons (URYs, URAs and OLQs) that participate in this distributed motor-state, even in the absence of movement and sensory stimuli. By chemogenetically manipulating these neurons, we collected evidence suggesting that feedback from these sensory neurons stabilizes the prolonged reversal state and behavior.To investigate the ecological relevance of these motor adjustment, we examined the animal’s interaction with a natural predator, the nematode-trapping fungus A. oligospora. We show that prolonged reversals as and the activity of URY and OLQ neurons play a role in escaping the fungal traps.In conclusion, our data support a model where modulation of distributed brain-wide motor states through a group of sensory neurons enables adaptive motor responses that are vital in natural environments.