Trigger Feature

It is possible to describe a neuron as being sensitive to a trigger feature, a specific pattern which, when detected, produces maximum activity in the cell.  One could argue that the role of a neuron is to detect a trigger feature.  The neuron doctrine for perceptual psychology argued for an approach that mapped out the trigger features detected by visual neurons in order to derive a complete, biological, perceptual theory (Barlow, 1972, 1995).

References: