how does instinct work? If it’s just “baked” into an animal’s DNA, how does it “activate” and how does it “activate” successfully?

Question

how does instinct work? If it’s just “baked” into an animal’s DNA, how does it “activate” and how does it “activate” successfully?

In: 513

Answer 1

Most of what we call “instinct” is a pre-wiring of the brain with a built in program. Brains are not a blank slate, they develop with some connections already set up by the growth of the brain. The same DNA mechanisms that can control the layout of muscles, nerve fibers, and arteries through the body can make sure some neurons in the brain are connected to other specific neurons.

Those connections form the connections for specific inputs (i.e. the senses) to cause the brain to make the creature do whatever instinct has set it up to do. This might be walking, hunting, mating, etc.