Concepts, goals and the control of survival-related behaviors
Open accessAbstract
Scientists have long studied the actions that impact basic survival in various domains of life, such as defense, foraging, reproduction, thermoregulation, and so on, as if such actions will reveal the nature of emotion. Each domain of survival came to be characterized by a repertoire of distinct actions, and each action was thought to be caused by a dedicated neural circuit, called a survival circuit. Survival circuits are thought to be triggered by sensory events in the world, quickly producing obligatory, stereotypic reflexes as well as more flexible, deliberate responses. In this paper, we consider recent evidence from behavioral ecology that even so-called "reflexes" are better understood as purposeful, flexible actions that unfold across a range of temporal trajectories. They are highly context-dependent and tailored to the requirements of the situation. We then consider evidence from the neuroscience of motor control that motor actions are assembled by neural populations, not triggered by simple circuits. We end by considering the value of these suggestions for understanding the species-general vs. species-specific contributions to emotion.
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- Authors
- Feldman Barrett, L., & Finlay, B. L.
- Affiliations
- Cornell University (US)
- Venue
- Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2018-12
- Volume
- 24
- Pages
- 172-179
- ISSN
- 2352-1546 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC6541420
- OpenAlex
- W2899140183
- Cited by
- 89
- References
- 74
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 10 · 2023: 10 · 2022: 9 · 2021: 9 · 2020: 38 · 2019: 4
- FWCI
- 1.71
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- U.S. Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences (W911NF-16-1-019)
- National Cancer Institute (U01 CA193632)
- National Institute of Mental Health (R01 MH113234, R01 MH109464)
- National Science Foundation (CMMI 1638234)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Embodied and Extended Cognition
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory and Neural Mechanisms
- Keywords
- emotions, reflexes, motor control, neural circuits, behavioral ecology, context-dependent behavior, species-specific behavior, action control
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