Basic Instinct: The Genesis of Behavior

A panicked mother runs through highway traffic to save her wandering child. A green turtle swims hundreds of miles to return to the beach on which it was hatched. Your child utters her first word. Have you ever wondered what causes you to react in a certain way to a certain situation, and if you would react differently under different circumstances? From Charles Darwin to Malcolm Gladwell, writers and scientists have been fascinated by what prompts us to snap decisions. In Basic Instinct, neuroscientist Mark Blumberg provides readers with a logical perspective that does not rely on the clichéd explanations that have become so prevalent among scientists and laypeople alike. Blumberg delves into the debate between the nativists and evolutionary psychologists, who believe we are born with an instinctive knowledge about the world, and the epigeneticists, who believe that instincts are built anew in each of us—generation after generation. The result is an entertaining and balanced examination of the role of genes, experience, and evolution in the construction of behavior.

Mark S. Blumberg is a neuroscientist at the University of Iowa and the author of Body Heat: Temperature and Life on Earth. He has published over sixty journal articles and chapters on such topics as sleep, animal behavior, temperature regulation, and communication. He is associate editor of the journal "Behavioral Neuroscience." After graduating from Brandeis University, he received his doctorate in biopsychology from the University of Chicago. He is the recipient of an Early Career Award from the American Psychological Association and, most recently, of an Independent Scientist Award from the National Institute of Mental Health.