Fish escape from approaching threats via a stereotyped escape behavior. This behavior, and the underlying neural circuit organized around the Mauthner cell command neurons, have both been extensively investigated experimentally, mainly in two laboratory model organisms, the goldfish and the zebrafish. However, fish biodiversity is enormous, a number of variants of the basal escape behavior exist. In marine gobies (a family of small benthic fishes) which share burrows with alpheid shrimp, the escape behavior has likely been partially modified into a tactile communication system which allow the fish to communicate the approach of a predatory fish to the shrimp. In this communication system, the goby responds to intermediate-strength threats with a brief tail-flick which the shrimp senses with its antennae.

We investigated the shrimp goby escape and communication system with computational models. We asked how the circuitry of the basal escape behavior could be modified to produce behavior akin to the shrimp-goby communication system. In a simple model, we found that mutual inhibitions between Mauthner cells can be tuned to produce an oscillatory response to intermediate strength inputs, albeit only in a narrow parameter range.

Using a more detailed model, we found that two modifications of the fish locomotor system transform it into a model reproducing the shrimp goby behavior. These modifications are: 1. modifying the central pattern generator which drives swimming such that it is quiescent when receiving no inputs; 2. introducing a direct sensory input to this central pattern generator, bypassing the Mauthner cells.

鱼通过刻板的逃避行为逃避接近的威胁。这种行为，以及围绕 Mauthner 细胞命令神经元组织的潜在神经回路，都已经通过实验进行了广泛的研究，主要是在两种实验室模式生物中，金鱼和斑马鱼。然而，鱼类的生物多样性是巨大的，存在多种基础逃逸行为。在与蛇蝎虾共用洞穴的海洋虾虎鱼（小型底栖鱼类家族）中，逃跑行为可能已部分修改为触觉交流系统，使鱼类能够将掠食性鱼类的接近方式传达给虾。在这个通信系统中，虾虎鱼通过短暂的甩尾来响应中等强度的威胁，虾用触角感知。

我们使用计算模型研究了虾虎鱼逃生和通信系统。我们询问了如何修改基础逃逸行为的电路以产生类似于虾-虾虎鱼通信系统的行为。在一个简单的模型中，我们发现可以调整 Mauthner 细胞之间的相互抑制以对中等强度输入产生振荡响应，尽管仅在一个狭窄的参数范围内。

使用更详细的模型，我们发现对鱼类运动系统的两次修改将其转换为再现虾虎鱼行为的模型。这些修改是： 1. 修改驱动游泳的中央模式生成器，使其在没有输入时处于静止状态；2. 将直接感官输入引入这个中央模式发生器，绕过 Mauthner 细胞。