Visual stimulus-specific habituation of innate defensive behaviour in mice

Innate defensive responses such as freezing or escape are essential for animal survival. Mice show defensive behaviour to stimuli sweeping overhead, like a bird cruising the sky. Here, we tested this in young male mice and found that mice reduced their defensive freezing after sessions with a stimulus passing overhead repeatedly. This habituation is stimulus specific, as mice freeze again to a novel shape. Habituation occurs regardless of the visual field location of the repeated stimulus. The mice generalized over a range of sizes and shapes, but distinguished objects when they differed in both size and shape. Innate visual defensive responses are thus strongly influenced by previous experience as mice learn to ignore specific stimuli.

Automated summary

Innate defensive responses such as freezing or escape are essential for animal survival. Mice show defensive behavior to stimuli overhead, but can habituate and reduce their responses over time. They are able to generalize over a range of sizes and shapes, but can distinguish between objects that differ in both size and shape.