Instinct- the mechanism

[MichaelXY]

lol
Talk about being sexually frustrated.

[AstusAleator]

wow
Poor seal just wants some love...

Anyhooo, I think that for a study of instinct, we should try to narrow our focus down to simpler organisms than humans or other mammals.

PS: Way to go alex.

[alextemplet]

I disagree. I think there would be very little of interest when studying instinct in simpler organisms that are without doubt controlled almost entirely by their genes. I think it would be much more interesting to study how genetic programming interacts with conditioning to learn the nature of instinct in more advanced organisms. After all, such study could help us understand ourselves a lot better.

[AstusAleator]

That's all well and good, for your doctoral thesis The level we're working at here a bio-online probably won't allow for much more than speculation (or perhaps some research) and little conclusion.

If we want results, simpler is better. I will admit that once you get to a certain level of simplicity, almost every action could be deemed instinct. If we could find an organism somewhere in the middle, with discernable instinctual behaviors as well as learned and conditioned, we could learn more about each of those things. Michael originally used a lizard for an example. That's not a bad compromise.

I've certainly witnessed learning and behavior modification in lizards. And there's no doubt that they operate to a degree on instinct.

[alextemplet]

Now that you mention it, that is a really good idea for my doctoral thesis! Of course I have to deal with this little issue called a BS (pun intended ) first . . .

You're right that on this forum we probably won't reach many conclusions, but I think we must keep in mind the purpose and value of this forum. I don't think anyone is here for serious scientific discoveries; rather, I use this forum more to discuss certain ideas, share opinions, and get tips on where to go for more detailed research. If we consider our discussions in those terms, I think this forum is a very good place to be.