Habit Formation

[foodchain]

Do you think that habits as expressed by an organism say such as a human have a cellular/molecular undertow in the idea they aid in defining actions for systems of such.

[pioneer]

If you look at the anatomy of a habit, it often starts out innocent enough and is often something that brings some level of satisfaction. It is often part of a creative data gathering where the results give a good feeling. The action and memory of this process/result are given an emotional valence of satisfication by the brain. The next step, is recreating that feeling of satisfaction by repeating the action. As long as the action keeps generating the feeling, we keep repeating the action. This can cause us to learned it by rote. This is implicit of a subroutine forming in the brain.

 

For example, say one gets a job and has to get ready for work. One may try different ways to budget their time, so they can get to work while also feeling ready to go. This final efficient system, leads to satisfaction, so it will be repeated. Eventually, it gets learned by rote, until it is a habit. It becomes a subroutine in the brain, that only needs activation.

 

An interesting experiment is to mess with your morning routine. Change the order. If you shower first, try to have breakfast first. If you start with coffee, drink it at the end. The result will require more conscious effort because the subroutine will also be active, trying to set the order. The result will feel less satisfying, until we achieve a new level of satisfaction. Habits are hard to break, because the alternative is not yet satisfying, and the subrountine will lead one down the old satisfying path.

[foodchain]

Well that’s sort of what I was getting at but I guess its my fault. Habit formation by living things seems to be pretty large scale, so I am guessing via natural selection it has a reason really to be around, which I think is environmental for a variety of reasons. First its not that hard to think that the governator or arnie down in California as a kid was actually skinny. So that being said its more or less a concept based on plasticity really in relation to environment or norm of reaction stuff I think.

 

But to what I am trying to get to in this thread is more or less on a more molecular point of view.

 

Such as the various smells of fruits and or vegetables. How did this come to be known by people. Not withstanding that it might not smell the same to another type of organism the fruits and or vegetables themselves contain regularly occurring chemical formulas or signatures and happen to be a rich energy source proper for consumption by a species geared for such. I think its via environment and adaptation that the smells of such have become known, which I would try to relate to habit in a sense being able to be recognized at more of a molecular level. I think this question more or less happens to relate at whole species level, and I know I am crossing into grounds on developmental biology and molecular biology, but organismal biology being what it is again the concept of the habit seems to be rather robust, as in occurring in more then just people. I think it has a reason in relation to norm of reaction in a giving environment also in relation to a genotype mapping into a phenotype, or more of less I think habits are a product of such. Again giving the idea that life is temporal it would then pertain to more lasting or acute realities as posed to life, such as staying clean and or eating I guess. Now food sources could have been a trail by error, but as witnessed with predatory animals they do indeed posses means to damaged and incapacitate or kill prey, such as claws for example. In relation to another type of predatory such as a lizard that has more specialized adaptations for a different type of prey. It all requires a certain degree of normal action, which then ultimately utilizes the molecular aspect of life.

 

So again to reduce the question to what I think I am talking about is the realization of habit on a molecular level in relation to norm of reactions for a giving phenotype is a possible ESS as derived from natural selection.