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Re: "Cross-specifically" - with an example added
Ralph L Holloway (rlh2@COLUMBIA.EDU)
Sat, 27 Jul 1996 00:12:55 -0400
On Fri, 26 Jul 1996, Ronald Kephart wrote:
> In message <199607251413.KAA14688@sumter.awod.com> "Jesse S. Cook III" writes:
>
> > I would not consider the maternal instinct to protect offspring as
> > altruistic behavior, even in humans; it is clearly adaptive.
>
> I, for one, wonder there is in fact such a thing as a "maternal instinct." Does
> anyone else have a problem with this?
>
> Ron Kephart
You might want to take a peak at today's NY Times, P. A21, where a report
on a recent discovery involving the fosB gene in mice is discussed.
Mice bred without this gene cannot mother their pups. They leave them to
die. It is believed the gene has something to do with brain circuitry. We
happen to share the gene with mice, but the article strongly cautions that
it doesn't necessarily relate to human behavior...that leaves us
wondering what it does relate to. ..Is there a maternal instinct? In what
species? What do you mean by instinct anyway?
Ralph Holloway
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