Settling nature and nurture into an ontogenetic niche

West, Meredith J.; King, Andrew P.

doi:10.1002/dev.420200508

Cited by 290 publications

(150 citation statements)

References 48 publications

(37 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

148

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Within the human evolutionary sciences, there is a growing appreciation for the role of developmental context, or 'ontogenetic niche' [12], in structuring cognition and behaviour. For example, recent work on the incest taboo suggests that this disposition is developmentally sensitive to childhood encounters such as coresidence with peers and the experience of one's mother caring for a newborn [13].…”

Section: Introduction: Human Diversity and The Concept Of Human Naturementioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring the folkbiological conception of human nature

Linquist

Machery

Griffiths

et al. 2011

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Integrating the study of human diversity into the human evolutionary sciences requires substantial revision of traditional conceptions of a shared human nature. This process may be made more difficult by entrenched, 'folkbiological' modes of thought. Earlier work by the authors suggests that biologically naive subjects hold an implicit theory according to which some traits are expressions of an animal's inner nature while others are imposed by its environment. In this paper, we report further studies that extend and refine our account of this aspect of folkbiology. We examine biologically naive subjects' judgments about whether traits of an animal are 'innate', 'in its DNA' or 'part of its nature'. Subjects do not understand these three descriptions to be equivalent. Both innate and in its DNA have the connotation that the trait is species-typical. This poses an obstacle to the assimilation of the biology of polymorphic and plastic traits by biologically naive audiences. Researchers themselves may not be immune to the continuing pull of folkbiological modes of thought.

show abstract

Section: Introduction: Human Diversity and The Concept Of Human Naturementioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring the folkbiological conception of human nature

Linquist

Machery

Griffiths

et al. 2011

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Finally, one of the key insights to emerge from the resurrection of developmental biology as a central focus in evolutionary theory is that development occurs not simply in the mother's womb, but in an ecological niche (West and King, 1987). For better or worse, the ecological environment of the mother impacts the perinatal environment.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Behavioural Genetics in the Postgenomics Era

Charney

2014

Encyclopedia of Life Sciences

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

There is growing evidence that the complexity of higher organisms does not correlate with the ‘complexity’ of the genome (the human genome contains fewer protein coding genes than corn, and many genes are preserved across species). Rather, complexity is associated with the complexity of the pathways and processes whereby the cell utilises the deoxyribonucleic acid molecule, and much else, in the process of phenotype formation. These processes include the activity of the epigenome, noncoding ribonucleic acids , alternative splicing and post‐translational modifications. Not accidentally, all of these processes appear to be of particular importance for the human brain, the most complex organ in nature. Because these processes can be highly environmentally reactive, they are a key to understanding behavioural plasticity and highlight the importance of the developmental process in explaining behavioural outcomes. Key Concepts: Humans possess fewer protein‐coding genes than maize (i.e. corn) and about the same number as a nematode. There is now strong evidence that the complexity of higher organisms correlates with the relative amount of noncoding RNA rather than the number of protein‐coding genes. Epigenetic processes are key to every aspect of human development from cellular differentiation to learning and memory. Epigenetic mechanisms provide an explanation on the molecular level as to how the pre‐ and postnatal environments can impact offspring's behaviour. Alternative splicing is one mechanism that enables the human body to create over 100 000 proteins with a genome that contains only 20 000 protein coding genes. Each gene in the human genome is not ‘encoded’ for the production of a single protein. Isoforms can have very different and even antithetical physiological effects. Alternative splicing patterns are modulated in response to external stimuli, such as depolarisation of neurons, activation of signal transduction cascades and stress. Post‐translational modification supplements alternative splicing as a means of creating protein diversity with a limited number of protein coding genes. DNA is not the sole biological agent of inheritance.

show abstract

“…In other words, phenotypic plasticity relies on a dependable yet flexible 'developmental niche' which is faithfully reconstructed by the species, the parent and the organism itself (West and King 1987).…”

Section: Explanatory Categories Of Behaviormentioning

confidence: 99%

From Cell-Surface Receptors to Higher Learning: A Whole World of Experience

Stotz

Allen

2011

Philosophy of Behavioral Biology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract:In the last decade it has become en vogue for cognitive comparative psychologists to study animal behavior in an 'integrated' fashion to account for both the 'innate' and the 'acquired'. We will argue that these studies, instead of really integrating the concepts of 'nature' and 'nurture', rather cement this old dichotomy. They combine empty nativist interpretation of behavior systems with blatantly environmentalist explanations of learning. We identify the main culprit as the failure to take development seriously. While in some areas of biology interest in the relationship between behavior and development has surged through topics such as extragenetic inheritance, niche construction, and phenotypic plasticity, this has gone almost completely unnoticed in the study of animal behavior in comparative psychology, and is frequently ignored in ethology too. The main aims of this paper are to clarify the relationship between the concepts of learning, experience, and development, and to investigate whether and how all three concepts can be usefully deployed in the study of animal behavior. This will require the full integration of the psychological study of behavior into biology, and of the idea of learning into a wider concept of experience. We lay out how, in a systems view of development, learning may just appear as one among many processes in which experience influences behavior. This new synthesis should help to overcome the age-old dualism between innate and acquired. It thereby opens up the possibility of developing scientifically more fruitful distinctions.

show abstract

Settling nature and nurture into an ontogenetic niche

Cited by 290 publications

References 48 publications

Exploring the folkbiological conception of human nature

Exploring the folkbiological conception of human nature

Behavioural Genetics in the Postgenomics Era

From Cell-Surface Receptors to Higher Learning: A Whole World of Experience

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About