structure of an instinct

[F. Frank LeFever]

Let me recommend studies by several old professors of mine (at City
College, NYU, and Museum of Natural Hisory  in NYC): T.C.Schneirla,
Daniel Lehrman, Jay Rosenblatt, and Ethel Tobach.  You should include
sources 40 yrs old in your literature search--only Jay and Ethel are
still alive and publishing.

This group has tried to see how minimal genetically-determined
tendencies might interact with prenatal and postnatal interactions with
the organism's environment in gradual development of what we eventually
recognize (when developed enough) as "instinctive" or species-specific
behaviors.

Frank LeFever
New York Neuropsychology Group









In <33C6EB80.AEBDC10 at kais.kais.kyoto-u.ac.jp> Yusuke Uchiyama
<yusuke at kais.kais.kyoto-u.ac.jp> writes: 
>
>Bradley Monroe Cooke wrote:
>> 
>> Hello all.
>> 
>> I'm interested in instincts, innate perceptual biases and their
basis in
>> the brain. How does one begin to discern the computational rules and
>> structures that underlie these abilities? Can these qualities be
discerned
>> through developmental neurobiology? I'm particularly interested in
the
>> neural origins of sexual attraction and orientation.
>> 
>> --
>> bradley cooke
>> 
>> you are the eyes of the world.
>>                  --Robert Hunter
>
>I'm interested in instincts, too. I'm particularly interested in the
>neural basis of the evolution of social behaviors of insects,
including
>mating.
>
>I think that we can disthern those qualities which you mentioned by
>developmental neurobiology, and we can discern the principle which
gave 
>rise to society.
>
>Yusuke Uchiyama