Topic: escape threshold

Animals faced with predatorial threats innately react by escaping to safety. Although escape is instinctive, it is also flexible enough to adapt to dynamic changes in the environment. For example, animals adapt to the risk of predation by increasing escape probability when there is a higher incidence of predator attacks. This flexibility is critical for maximizing the adaptiveness of behavioural choices, but the underlying mechanisms are unknown. It has recently been shown that activation of neurons in the dorsal periaqueductal gray (dPAG) is the main step for commanding escape initiation. Her

Animals faced with predatorial threats innately react by escaping to safety. Although escape is instinctive, it is also flexible enough to adapt to dynamic changes in the environment. For example, animals adapt to the risk of predation by increasing escape probability when there is a higher incidence of predator attacks. This flexibility is critical for maximizing the adaptiveness of behavioural choices, but the underlying mechanisms are unknown. Previous work has shown that activation of neurons in the dorsal periaqueductal gray (dPAG) is the main step for commanding escape initiation. Here w