Sensory Processing of Key Stimuli

Abstract

The concept of a “key stimulus” is traditionally identified with releasers of behavioral responses analogous to that involving a lock and key. If the key fits, then, when it is applied, it will “unlock” the mechanisms and a particular behavior will occur. In other words, the response is predictable and is either genetically determined or shaped by experience — namely innate compared to acquired releasing mechanisms. The “key stimulus” presumably activates a particular chain or population of sensory neurons which in turn somehow leads to the activation of an appropriate population of motorneurons, giving rise to the predicted, stereotyped behavioral output.