An outline of human neuroethology.

Abstract

Neuroethology is concerned with the analysis of neural substrates and mechanisms that underlie invariant forms of species-typical behavior. The aim of this outline is to delineate in an evolutionary perspective some specific human functional brain states and mechanisms which form the foundation of homo-typical behavior and experience. Dreaming, as one example, is considered to belong to the universals of human experience. Another example is the repertoire of human emotion and mental phenomena evoked by the electrical stimulation of the human limbic system. The expression of emotions by vocal behavior gains momentum in man and is based on certain transformations of the CNS that were fundamental for the emergence of speech. The phonemes in speech are the species-typical articulatory gestures for which a special decoding device is required. This innate mechanism may have features in common with the vocal signal decoding mechanism of subhuman primates.