Mauthner Cell

Mauthner Cell

The Mauthner Cells are a pair of big and easily identifiable neurons (one for each half of the body) located in the rhombomere 4 of the hindbrain in fish and amphibians that are responsible for a very fast escape reflex (in the majority of animals - a so-called C-start response). The cells are also notable for their unusual use of both chemical and electrical synapses.

Read more about Mauthner Cell:  Evolutionary History, Plasticity, History of Research

Famous quotes containing the word cell:

    What Mrs. Thatcher did for women was to demonstrate that if a woman had enough desire she could do what she wanted, do anything a man could do.... Mrs. Thatcher did not have one traditional feminine cell in her body.
    Julie Burchill (b. 1960)