A cellular midbrain mechanism for executing fast and reliable escape

Escape from threat is one of the most ancient and conserved sensorimotor transformations and must satisfy two competing demands. It must be fast and reliable, because failing to escape genuine threats risks death, yet also selective, because escaping indiscriminately costs energy and missed resources. Speed and reliability favour a system with a low threshold that responds to the slightest indication of danger, whereas selectivity demands a high threshold that filters out innocuous stimuli - yet both must be achieved simultaneously. While previous work has identified mechanisms for implementing selectivity, it is not known how the mammalian brain achieves speed and reliability once genuine t