Free will
- Q. Â Could you elaborate more on your thoughts regarding operant conditioning and evolved free will?
A. Â Pavlovian / classical conditioning always takes place before operant conditioning can occur. The initial UCS: CS pairing involved the epigenetic effects of food odors or pheromones. The food odors or pheromones directly effect secretion of GnRH via a diet-responsive and pheromone-responsive neurogenic niche that also determines whether or not other hormone secretion driven by the neurogenic niche will be linked via operant conditioning to rewards associated with visual, auditory, tactile stimuli et al. None of these secondary associations, for example with the dopaminergic system, or even with oxytocin, can occur in the absence of olfactory/pheromonal conditioning of the GnRH directed response.
Meanwhile, we have people linking dopamine and oxytocin causally to behavior — all the while burying / disguising the cause and effect known to be common to all species via the common molecular biology. As I detailed using the honeybee model organism, nutrient chemicals are the first to classically condition cellular responses and gene expression that allows survival of individuals. Then, the metabolism of nutrient chemicals to pheromones controls reproduction and species survival. Only when the ecological niche contains enough nutrient chemicals, and pheromones control reproduction, does adaptive evolution allow for construction of the neurogenic niche that enables brain development in vertebrates and the hypothalamic neurogenic niche, which also enables construction of our socio-cognitive niche.
With construction of our socio-cognitive niche comes free will. We can choose to not respond to classically conditioned appetites for food and sex, but we either die of starvation, or leave no offspring. Those are serious consequences. But when we choose whether or not we respond to preferences that are operantly conditioned, we merely limit food intake or sexual experiences. Simply put, we can choose to avoid experiences that are not acceptable to society, like sex with a minor, but we cannot choose not to eat. Free will is obviously involved in many choices and so is operant conditioning, but classical conditioning of hormone responses to food odors and pheromones is initially involved in all other choices.
Want more on the same topic?
Swipe/Drag Left and Right To Browse Related Posts:
#SFN2019 to 2012: Hiding the facts (2)
6 MIN READ
0
Light-activated continuous environmental tracking (1)
5 MIN READ
0
Environmental selection is natural selection
3 MIN READ
0
Polymaths and paradigm shifts: from Asimov to Bear (4)
6 MIN READ
0
Vulgar Antagonists vs Quantum Effects
3 MIN READ
0
New Testament Book Cover Refutes Theistic Evolution
7 MIN READ
0
Energy-dependent physical and biophysical constraints (5)
7 MIN READ
0
Energy-dependent hydrogen bonds in supercoiled DNA
7 MIN READ
0
Bird-brained theorists
< 1 MIN READ
0
Energy-dependent de novo creation and neurogenesis
7 MIN READ
0
Theories vs facts about polycombic adaptation
3 MIN READ
0
Energy-dependent maternal-to-zygotic transition
6 MIN READ
1
Model vs theory: Progress report!
8 MIN READ
0
Organic Compounds and the Miracle of Smell and Taste
7 MIN READ
0
Life history transitions and RNA-mediated survial
2 MIN READ
0
Researchers rename, reshuffle, and reveal their ignorance
3 MIN READ
0
Cell type differentiation: atoms to ecosystems
2 MIN READ
0
MicroRNA-encoded behavior
7 MIN READ
0
Skip the politics; embrace the facts
5 MIN READ
0
700 million years of evolution?
5 MIN READ
0
Preventing genomic entropy
4 MIN READ
0
Foundamentals of theory
4 MIN READ
0
Alternative pre-mRNA splicing and ecological adaptation
7 MIN READ
0
Anti-entropic containment of energy: symbiosis 1.0
5 MIN READ
0
Becoming biologically informed (3)
3 MIN READ
0
Easy editing: Reinventing our RNA world
3 MIN READ
0
Riding the wrong direction
3 MIN READ
0
RNA-mediated gene duplication, fixation, and ecological adaptation
6 MIN READ
0
“New” epigenetic mechanism for lifelong learning?
3 MIN READ
0
Protein folding and Google page rank
2 MIN READ
0
Alternative splicings: epigenetics meets pharmacogenomics
4 MIN READ
0
Epigenetic regulation of aging by glycine and GnRH
5 MIN READ
0
Viruses and the human-like microbiome
3 MIN READ
0
Ignoring systems complexity (it’s too complicated)
3 MIN READ
0
Virus-driven cancer treatment and prevention
2 MIN READ
0
A special issue on nutritional epigenetics
5 MIN READ
0
Retinoic acid + one receptor regulate the genome
3 MIN READ
0
Epigenetics: microRNAs effect an integrative pathway
4 MIN READ
0
RNA-mediated “repurposing” is nutrient-dependent and pheromone-controlled
3 MIN READ
0
RNA-mediated "repurposing" is nutrient-dependent and pheromone-controlled
3 MIN READ
0
Imagining that data historically supports evolutionary theory
7 MIN READ
0
Military combat training to fight disease (2)
3 MIN READ
0
Epigenetic effects of viruses on cellular homeostasis (2)
2 MIN READ
0
Unified nutritional and molecular mechanisms
9 MIN READ
0
Atoms to ecosystems: Evolutionary theory vs the coelacanth
6 MIN READ
0
Jumping back: Science or Pseudoscience? (2)
2 MIN READ
0
Extensive molecular evidence vs ridiculous theories
2 MIN READ
0
Thermodynamic constraints and ecological adaptations sans evolution
6 MIN READ
0
More than a bag of chemicals?
2 MIN READ
0
Nothing new under the sun, except pseudoscientific nonsense
6 MIN READ
0
Making sense of quotes scattered across disciplines
2 MIN READ
0
De novo DNA methylation?
3 MIN READ
0
We need pattern recognition, not a prologue
6 MIN READ
0
Pharmacogenomics
3 MIN READ
0
From deep time into real time: What evolutionary processes?
10 MIN READ
0
No understanding of biodiversity
2 MIN READ
0
Unassailable evidence vs assumptions
4 MIN READ
0
Physics, Chemistry, and Molecular biology (PCMb)
2 MIN READ
0
Ecological variation and niche construction: 1, 2, 3
6 MIN READ
0
Epigenetically-effected metabolic shifts and ecological adaptations
3 MIN READ
0
Evolving DNA before RNA
4 MIN READ
0
Did our adapted mind evolve? (Revisited)
2 MIN READ
0
Did our adapted mind evolve?
6 MIN READ
0
Miracles are not miracles to evolutionary theorists
2 MIN READ
0
Seemingly futile cycles are not thermodynamically futile
3 MIN READ
0
Do bacterial proteins evolve?
3 MIN READ
0
New technique used in report of atomic-level ecological adaptations
3 MIN READ
0
Memory of repression and memory of behavior
2 MIN READ
0
A molecular visualizer of worthwhile molecular biology
2 MIN READ
0
Some neuroscientists think a mutation led to human language development
< 1 MIN READ
0
RNA-mediated ecological adaptation is not evolution
2 MIN READ
0
Exploding genomes and chromosomal rearrangements via RNA-mediated events
2 MIN READ
0
Baby talk: More misrepresentations of ecological adaptations
2 MIN READ
0
Comparing divergent model organisms
2 MIN READ
1
A microRNA-mediated mechanism that is epigenetically inherited
2 MIN READ
0
Epimutations: Attacking pseudoscientific dogmas
4 MIN READ
0
Order and disorder: Ecological adaptations not mutations
6 MIN READ
0
microRNAs differentiate neuronal cell types
3 MIN READ
0
microRNAs and species relationships
3 MIN READ
0
The quantum biology of consciousness
3 MIN READ
0
Behavior is receptor-mediated
10 MIN READ
0
Genes and Race: Human History?
2 MIN READ
0
Ecologically linked adapted ants and brains
2 MIN READ
0
Chromosomal rearrangements and ecological adaptations
4 MIN READ
0
The wrong picture of our evolution
4 MIN READ
0
Jay R. Feierman
3 MIN READ
0
Social experiences epigenetically effect gene networks
2 MIN READ
0
Evolution: innovations may have non-adaptive origins (sans mutations)
2 MIN READ
0
Nutrient-dependent / pheromone-controlled social structure
2 MIN READ
0
Epistasis as the primary factor in molecular evolution
4 MIN READ
0
Epigenetics and metabolism converge with pheromone production
2 MIN READ
0
Epigenetic maintenance of transcription / neuronal migration
2 MIN READ
0
Epigenetic effects underlie sexual preferences IV
< 1 MIN READ
0
A newly discovered hypothalamic neurogenic niche in the brain
< 1 MIN READ
0
MicroRNA binds messenger RNA: Adaptive Evolution
< 1 MIN READ
0
Sex differences in Alzheimer's and everything else
2 MIN READ
0
Sex differences in Alzheimer’s and everything else
2 MIN READ
0
The logic of gene regulatory networks
3 MIN READ
0
Human Pheromones: Epigenetic Effects of Odors and Their Affects on Behavior
2 MIN READ
0
Creating new genes (and controlling diversity)
2 MIN READ
0
The end of random mutations theory
2 MIN READ
0
Epigenetic effects of viruses on cellular homeostasis
< 1 MIN READ
0
Human pheromones: epigenetic effects
< 1 MIN READ
0
Nobel laureate challenges psychologists to clean up their act
2 MIN READ
0
Society for Social Neuroscience Presentation scheduled 10/11/12
2 MIN READ
0
“Just-So” stories vs scientific explanations
2 MIN READ
0
Human pheromones and the epigenetic effects of isolation
2 MIN READ
0
Human pheromones: an epigenetic continuum from microbes to mammals
3 MIN READ
0
The Epigenetics of Drug Development and Cholesterol Levels
< 1 MIN READ
0
Human pheromones and autism spectrum disorders (2)
2 MIN READ
0
Epigenetic alterations due to stress
< 1 MIN READ
0
Human pheromones and autism spectrum disorders
2 MIN READ
0
Human pheromones, the social brain and simple math computations
2 MIN READ
0
Children’s healthy diets lead to healthier IQ
< 1 MIN READ
0
Niche construction: ecological, social, neurogenic, and socio-cognitive
2 MIN READ
0
Human pheromones in business strategy
< 1 MIN READ
0
Human pheromones, social deprivation, and brain growth
< 1 MIN READ
0
Human Pheromones and Free Will: a response to Gazzaniga
2 MIN READ
0
Nutrient mixture and memory in patients with early Alzheimer’s
< 1 MIN READ
0
Human pheromones and multi-level selection
< 1 MIN READ
0
Bee research, human sweet perception, human pheromones, and metabolic disorders
< 1 MIN READ
0
Human pheromones and the viruses that make us
2 MIN READ
0
A detailed model of physical reality and natural selection (722 words)
3 MIN READ
0
Evolution of the nervous system: conserved GnRH
< 1 MIN READ
0
Human Pheromones and Comparative Epigenomics
2 MIN READ
0
Aging Is Recorded in Our Genes
2 MIN READ
0
Human Pheromone Facts and the Out of Africa Theory
3 MIN READ
0
ecological social neurogenic niche
2 MIN READ
0
Smelling the difference between young and old
< 1 MIN READ
0
Human pheromones and the visual appeal of other people (Part Four)
3 MIN READ
0
A thought experiment
3 MIN READ
0
No New Neurons for Smell?
2 MIN READ
0
Human pheromones: Olfaction, odor receptors, learning, memory, mood, brains and behavior
< 1 MIN READ
0
A nutrient chemical and pheromone-dependent neurogenic niche
2 MIN READ
0
Human pheromone- and nutrient-dependent brain development and behavior
2 MIN READ
0
Human pheromones and the visual appeal of other people (Part Two)
2 MIN READ
0
Human Pheromones in Socioaffective Neuroscience & Psychology
2 MIN READ
0
The cause of colony collapse could be a message for all of us
< 1 MIN READ
0
Human Pheromones: 2010 Powerpoint slides and 2011 poster presentation
2 MIN READ
0
Epigentics and the baby connectome
2 MIN READ
0
Misrepresentations of biologically based cause and effect:
3 MIN READ
0
Cause and effect in biology
< 1 MIN READ
0
Baiting evolutionary psychologists and others who damn religion
3 MIN READ
0
The Demise of Guys
< 1 MIN READ
0
Pheromones and detectable odors
2 MIN READ
0
The “yuck” factor: aversion to social odors?
2 MIN READ
0
Human pheromones: social odors and food odors
< 1 MIN READ
0
Pheromones and a realistic model of sexual differentiation
3 MIN READ
0
A lesser role for olfaction and pheromones in humans?
1 MIN READ
0
Creating a Myth
< 1 MIN READ
0
Social selection: genetic contribution of viruses to life on earth
< 1 MIN READ
0
Pheromones and Physiology: Faculty of 1000: Naturally Selected
2 MIN READ
0
Molecular biology and social science theory
2 MIN READ
0
Presentation on Human Pheromones delivered on August 3, 2010
2 MIN READ
0
