Behavioral pathway to evolutionary change

Abstract

The extreme malleability or plasticity of cells early in their development is mirrored to a certain, if lesser, degree in the psychological, behavioral, and neural functioning of developing organisms. The early developmental adaptability of organisms has significance for our understanding of evolution. It is the purpose of the present article to make a case for the extra-genetic or, better, the supra-genetic developmental basis of evolutionary change through the genesis of novel behavioral phenotypes. To make things as clear as possible, I contrast this developmental approach to evolution with the population-genetic model of the modern synthesis. I should say at the outset that the present theory can be integrated with the population-genetic model, with the exception of the radically different role ascribed to genes in the two viewpoints.