The limbic system is programmed to seek a cormfort-safety zone around a mothering organism
The limbic system is DNA-programmed to seek a comfort-safety zone around a mothering organism. If a mother isn’t present, the closest substitute in the environment will be imprinted. The limbic system imprints through breastfeeding, and how important is this oral imprinting? We read of a baby giraffe whose mother was accidentally killed by a jeep immediately after birth. The neonate, following hard-wired genetic programs, imprinted the first object that roughly fit the giraffe archetype—the jeep itself. He followed the machine around, vocalized to it, attempted to suckle from it, and, when adult, tried to mate with it. Similarly, Konrad Lorenz tells of a gosling who accidentally imprinted a ping-pong ball and spent his adult life, indifferent to female geese, attempting to sexually mount ping-pong balls.
References
- Robert, A., Wilson. (1983). Prometheus Rising Chapter 3 The Oral Bio-Survival Circuit (Location 481). Grand Junction, CO: Hilaritas Press.
Metadata
Type:🔴 Tags: Biology / Ethology / Neuroscience Status:☀️