Neural Control of Behavior

Abstract

A major goal of neurobiology is to provide an understanding of animal behavior in terms of the operation of the nervous system. Much of neurobiological research is therefore concerned at some level with the control of behavior. We have restricted our comments to attempts to relate a cellular level of neural analysis, involving neurons whose physiology, morphology, and connectivity are relatively well known, to fairly complete behavioral acts and to the overall organization of behavior. Consequently, examples will be drawn almost entirely from work on invertebrate nervous systems. Rather than review any single research area in detail, we hope to focus on the nature of behavior as seen from a cellular level, and to identify emerging principles and problems provided by this approach.