Abstract

The concept of command is central to motor control theories and explanations for the initiation of behavior patterns. As currently conceived, command is a process of individual command neurons that receive sensory and other integrative information and trigger the expression of behavioral acts. I review the theory and methods used to show the existence of neurons mediating command function according to a major approach, which I call the Command Neuron Experiment . The CNE claims that command neurons are the cause of, or are necessary and sufficient for, the execution of behavioral acts. In the CNE, command function is unequivocally localized to a structure, the command neuron. ;However, findings from an archetypal command neuron, the goldfish Mauthner cell , produce anomalous interpretations in the context of this theory. My results show that the central program producing the goldfish escape behavior adapts automatically to the absence of both M-cells: animals with bilateral M-cell microlesions continued to produce the full spectrum of response types and performance levels seen in intact animals. ;The conflict between my results and the CNE is the cumulative result of faulty causal, operational and behavioral themes in the CNE. These themes readily lead to false positive or false negative conclusions when its operational procedures are applied. ;I conclude that the CNE concept of command is an inadequate framework in which to discover the neural mechanisms underlying the decision and execution processes that occur when an animal begins a behavioral act. I herein propose a new concept of command which is based on a suite of principles. In this concept, command is a dynamic system property intermediate to neurophysiological and behavioral contexts and independent of preconceived causal paradigms, methods, or structures. I visualize command within a neurobehavioral or neuroethological context. This provisional concept provides a way of thinking, and an approach for discovering, the neural processes that underlie behavioral performance