The Development of Startle Responses in Herring Larvae

In common with many teleosts, herring show marked ‘fast startle’ responses when subjected to sound stimuli from a vibrating source (Blaxter, Gray & Denton, 1981). These comprise a sharp C-shaped contortion of the body; the fish respond to transients of as little as half a cycle of sound with a latency of about 25 ms and the turn is usually away from the sound source. There is good evidence that the Mauthner cells are implicated in other species (see Eaton & Hackett, 1984) but this has not been established in the herring, although they are known to be present.