Figure 5. Silencing mechanosensory neurons accelerates the transition between fast and slow locomotion during acoustic escape responses.
(A–B) We separately analyzed the fast component of the escape response (cycles with TBF >30 Hz) and the slow component (cycles with TBF ≤30 Hz) as shown for control (n = 176 larvae from 8 clutches, n = 561 escapes) and BoTxBLC+ larvae (n = 128 larvae from 8 clutches, n = 329 escapes). (C1–C5) Within the fast regime of the escape, silencing mechanosensory feedback reduces the distance travelled in BoTxBLC+ larvae compared to control siblings (C1, 5.9 ± 0.2 versus 7.4 ± 0.2 mm, p<0.001), duration (C2, 60.0 ± 2.1 versus 67.8 ± 1.9 ms, p=0.005), number of oscillations (C3, 2.9 ± 0.1 versus 3.6 ± 0.1 oscillations, p<0.001), speed (C4, 104.3 ± 1.9 versus 112.6 ± 1.6 mm/s, p=0.001), and TBF (C5, 45.8 ± 0.4 versus 48.4 ± 0.3 Hz, p<0.001). (D1–D5) Within the slow component of the escape, silencing mechanosensory feedback in BoTxBLC+ larvae increases the distance travelled (D1, 3.5 ± 0.1 versus 2.4 ± 0.1 mm, p<0.001), duration (D2, 140.9 ± 3.4 versus 97.1 ± 3.2 ms, p<0.001, p<0.001) and number of oscillations (D3, 2.8 ± 0.1 versus 1.9 ± 0.1, p<0.001) but has no effect on speed (D4, 24.9 ± 0.4 versus 24.6 ± 0.4 mm/s, p=0.5) and tail-beat frequency (D5, 25.3 ± 0.1 versus 25.4 ± 0.1 Hz, p=0.5). For all parameters: n = 304 larvae, number of fast components = 1013; number of slow components = 1265.