Fifty years of a command neuron: the neurobiology of escape behavior in the crayfish
Abstract
Fifty years ago C.A.G. Wiersma established that the giant axons of the crayfish nerve cord drive tail-flip escape responses. The circuitry that includes these giant neurons has now become one of the best-understood neural circuits in the animal kingdom. Although it controls a specialized behavior of a relatively simple animal, this circuitry has provided insights that are of general neurobiological interest concerning matters as diverse as the identity of the neural substrates involved in making behavioral decisions, the cellular bases of learning, subcellular neuronal computation, voltage-gated electrical synaptic transmission and modification of neuromodulator actions that result from social experience. This work illustrates the value of studying a circuit of moderate, but tractable, complexity and known behavioral function.
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The crayfish escape response is triggered by information entering through arrays of hair cells on its tail and abdomen.
“This escape response is triggered by information that enters the system through arrays of hair cells located on its tail and abdomen12–14.”
From Corollary discharge across the animal kingdom (2008) · cites this paper as [12]
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- Authors
- Edwards, D. H., Heitler, W. J., & Krasne, F. B.
- Affiliations
- Georgia State University (US)
- University of St Andrews (GB)
- University of California, Los Angeles (US)
- ORCID
- Krasne, Franklin B.
- Venue
- Trends in Neurosciences
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 1999-04
- Volume
- 22
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 153-161
- ISSN
- 0166-2236 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2097756276
- Cited by
- 334
- References
- 68
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 7 · 2024: 10 · 2023: 13 · 2022: 9 · 2021: 5 · 2020: 15 · 2019: 14 · 2018: 19 · 2017: 19 · 2016: 5 · 2015: 17 · 2014: 16 · 2013: 7 · 2012: 16
- FWCI
- 1.28
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Trends in Neurosciences (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council
- National Science Foundation
- U.S. Public Health Service
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neurobiology and Insect Physiology Research
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neuroscience and Neuropharmacology Research
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural dynamics and brain function
- Keywords
- crayfish, giant axons, command neurons, nerve cord, neural circuits, behavioral decision making, learning, neural computation, neuromodulation, social experience
- MeSH terms
- Abdomen, Afferent Pathways, Animals, Avoidance Learning, Axons, Astacoidea, Efferent Pathways, Escape Reaction, Biological Evolution, Locomotion, Models, Neurological, Synaptic Transmission, Neuronal Plasticity, Social Environment, Tail, Ion Channel Gating, Ganglia, Invertebrate
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