The Beauty of the Network in the Brain and the Origin of the Mind in the Control of Behavior

Abstract

Behavior is not adequately described as a stimulus-response process. It is initiated by the animal and is generated because of its expected outcome in the future. The outcome can be good or bad for the animal. The brain is in charge of the selection process. This is the basic function of the brain. Taking Drosophila as a study case, this paper discusses initiating activity, several examples of outcome expectations, trying out (the internal search for a suitable behavior), chaining of actions, and the functional roles of chance in action selection. It takes mental processes and states such as goals, intentions, feelings, memories, cognition, and attention as higher levels of behavioral control that have their origin in biological evolution.

Keywords::

• activity
• brain function
• chance
• Drosophila
• outcome expectation

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I thank R. Wolf for the close to four decades of collaboration that provided many of the behavioral insights, and for preparing the figures. The German Science Foundation supports the ongoing studies in a Reinhart Koselleck-Projekt (HE986/20-1).

Declaration of interest: The author reports no conflicts of interest. The author alone is responsible for the content and writing of the paper.