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Fig. 1 | BMC Biology

Fig. 1

From: A simple threat-detection strategy in mice

Fig. 1

Mice exhibited three remarkable behaviors in response to looming stimuli. a Schematic showing the experimental setup: a cylindrical open field, a rectangular refuge, a display monitor above, and an infrared touchscreen frame below. Visual looming stimuli were presented automatically in the open field. b Aerial view of the experimental setup showing the trigger area and the refuge. The radius of the trigger area was half the open-field radius. c Top: cartoon depicting a mouse presented with a typical looming visual stimulus—a dark disk expanding from 0 to 60°, repeated for 6 s. Bottom: the stimulus can be described by the function f (θ,t) of the time history of the shadow’s size (θ). d An example of flight response from 2 s prior to 10 s after the visual stimulus was triggered. Left: trajectory of a mouse from 2 s before to 10 s after the visual stimulus was triggered. Right, top: distance to the refuge and to the open-field center; middle: touchpoint area; bottom: mouse speed and speed of the change of touchpoint area (CTA). e An example of a freezing response. f An example of a rearing response

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