Command neuron

A command neuron is a single neuron (or small set of neurons) whose stimulation results in the evocation of an endogenous, specific, naturally occurring behavior pattern (Carew, 2000). Command neurons act as neural decision making cells; push buttons that can trigger a complete, coordinated behavioral act and are often the sole determinant of whether an action is performed or not. Command neurons receive a convergence of integrative and sensory input and output to a multifarious group of pattern generating efferent cells. Stimulation of the command neuron triggers a lower level central pattern generator whose motorneurons and interneurons produce a particular fixed action pattern.

The term command neuron first appeared in a 1964 paper "Interneurons Commanding Swimmeret Movements in the Crayfish" by CAG Wiersma and K Ikeda in volume 12 of Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology vol 12 on pp 509–525. Wiersma and Ikeda used the term to describe how a single action potential in any of the four giant fibers that run along the dorsal margin of the crayfish nerve cord caused the crayfish to execute a tail-flip escape response. This concept came to epitomize the general neurobiological principle that complex information can be encoded on the level of individual neurons. Soon, researchers were finding command neurons in multiple invertebrate and vertebrate species, including: crickets, cockroaches, lobsters, and certain fish.

In 1978, Kupfermann and Weiss' "The Command Neuron Concept" proposed a more rigorous definition of the command neuron than had previously been used. They suggested that for any neuron to qualify as a command neuron, its activity had to be both necessary and sufficient for the initiation of the behavior it was purported to command. This article initiated a torrent of tumultuous debate about which neurons, if any, could fit the new, more rigorous definition proposed by Kupfermann and Weiss.

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