Neuronal Circuits for Fixed Motor Behavior Programs

Abstract

The electrical brain stimulation experiments in crickets and toads suggest that programs exist in the CNS for the triggering of species-specific behavior patterns. It may be assumed that such motor programs are based on fixed neuronal circuits which, when activated, initiate a spatially and temporally coordinated motor pattern. Such programs could be initiated spontaneously via commands originating in the brain itself, or they could be released by signals from the environment, following appropriate stimulus identification. It is conceivable that at the end of the relevant information processing chain there is a particular neuronal system that, when appropriately stimulated, activates the corresponding motor program.