Acquired drives

This study is also responsible for developing the conceptualization that vertebrates can be divided into three groups according to the mode of operation of their brain (a) those that operate with innate drives only (the majority) (b) those with an ability to acquire drives (a minority) and (c) the group of one that operates almost exclusively with acquired drives (Homo sapiens sapiens). 

With the development of the human brain, a functional network with over 100 billion interrelated nerve cells and 1010 bit capacity arose. With this system, whose operation is inseparably connected to conscious perception, life on earth reached its most sophisticated form. Furthermore, the human being, who is primarily a social creature, is a building block in the creation of a gigantic product human society. The function and capacity of society obviously exceeds the sum of the activity of its members. Based on the practically inexhaustible capacity of the human brain to acquire drives, human society represents a qualitatively new, higher form of life. For example, a country, presently the most sophisticated form of a human community, consists of millions or even over a billion humans and operates de facto as a huge living complex interacting with other similar entities, about 200 at present. 

The dissemination of knowledge about the operation of the human brain, the realization how its ability to acquire drives makes the individual so vulnerable to outer influences, may in the long run radically decrease and finally eliminate the responsiveness of individuals to historically developed and still effective manipulative techniques. The latter would otherwise increase the conscious exploitation of inborn abilities. In the best case, this trend may some day help humankind to approach the mythical golden age, the evolution of an optimum form of social living. 

The main message of this monograph is that the appearance of the mammalian brain with its ability to acquire drives ensured the development of social life and ultimately led to the evolution of the human society. This most sophis-... 

It also seems reasonable to assume that whenever we observe the efficient operation of an acquired drive, the objective changes in the cortical neurons are inseparable from the subjective side of the special state of high excitability, the imagination of the goal to be reached. Terms such as process of imagination (Beritov 1932), insight (Koffka 1935), and so on have been adopted by virtue... 

Due to a never-ending stimulation of the brain via the outer and inner world the transformation of cortical neurons from a functionally lower category into a higher one continues uninterruptedly from birth until death. While the potential to acquire drives is highly restricted in the brains of animals, this capacity is unlimited in the human cortex. This qualitative leap makes the Homo sapiens sapiens unique among living beings. 

In my case the decisive period of experimentation that built into my brain the urge to clarify the unknown neurochemical mechanism of the acquisition of a drive fell between 1951 and 1953. After 50 years of continuous analysis of this problem, it has become my firm belief that the mammalian brain reached its highest level of organization with the evolution of specific cortical enhancer regulation enabling it to acquire drives. I also propose that this development culminated in the appearance of the Homo sapiens, the only mammalian species whose fife is primarily based on the acquisition of unnatural drives. It seems to me that just as the discovery of the force of mutual attraction among all bodies led to a sound interpretation of the world around us, the discovery of the force of mutual attraction between cortical neurons will lead to a sound interpretation of a brain function which is inseparable from conscious perception. 

Based on previous efforts to reveal the underlying mechanism of innate and acquired drives (see Knoll 1969,2003, for review), this study attempts to translate drive into the language of neurochemistry. 

Urges that keep the mammalian organisms working as highly sophisticated, goal-oriented entities can be divided into two main groups innate and acquired drives. 

Acquired Drives in Service of an Unlimited Number of Dispensable Goals... 

Humans are the only livingbeings on earth whose life is predominantly based on acquired drives. To a certain extent, a minority of the mammalian species (the monkey, dog, horse, dolphin, rat, etc.) possesses this endowment, which, under natural conditions, remains unexploited. Nevertheless, humans obviously discovered thousands of years ago, probably through a kind of serendipity, that the behavior of such animals can be modified by proper training, and this started the development of the domestication of various species. 

The ambition to be in a permanent state of activity is a natural endowment of the human brain, which acquires drives with utmost ease. The acquisition of proper drives in the most sensitive developmental period of life, from weaning until sexual maturity, will thereafter be determinant for the lifelong basic activity of the individual. 

A Model for Studying the Characteristics of the Development of an Acquired Drive... 

Some strains of laboratory rats lend themselves particularly well to the analysis of the formation of an acquired drive and the study of the basic role of an innate drive in the acquisition of an urge for an unnatural goal. 

In the most efficiently trained, best performing rats the acquired drive was so powerful that it suppressed even innate drives. When such a rat has been deprived of food for 48 h and then food was offered within the usual setup that contained the glass-cylinder, the rat looked for the glass cylinder and left the food untouched. Similarly, when a receptive female was offered to a sexually fully active glass-cylinder-seeking male rat in the usual setup, the male looked for the glass-cylinder and neglected the receptive female. 

We described earlier the essence of both the innate and acquired drives as a state of specific activation (active focus) in a special population of subcortical and cortical neurons, respectively (see Fig. 11 in Knoll 1969). In the light of the enhancer regulation concept, we may characterize the active focus as an endogenous enhancer substance-induced enhanced excitability in a circumscribed population of mesencephalic and telencephalic neurons that persists until the goal has been reached. 

The Conception that Whatever Humans Achieved Derives from the Unrestricted Capacity of Their Brain to Acquire Drives... 

It was already discovered in ancient times that the behavior of some mammalian species can be manipulated by proper training. The animals acquire a drive for an unnatural goal and humans make use of it. The horse and the dog are probably the best examples of domesticated species that for thousands of years played an important role in the everyday life of humans. Their faithfulness and devotion to their master, their cleverness and special skill to be helpful in complicated situations is legendary. The essence of domestication is clear by now. The manipulation of the brain of domesticated animals, which enables their exploitation after proper training, is based on the ability of their cortex to acquire drives. Yet the overwhelming majority of vertebrates is devoid of this ability. 

The characteristic behavioral consequences of the operation of an innate or acquired drive is shown in rats in an open field in Table 1. The data were taken from a recently published series of experiments (Miklya et al. 2003b) that corroborated our earlier findings published between 1955 and 1957 (see Knoll 1969, for review). 

This is further clearly shown by comparing the drive-induced purposeful increase in activity with the purposeless hypermotility caused by amphetamine treatment. Amphetamine induces a continuous, irresistible release of catecholamines from their intraneuronal stores in the mesencephalon and this leads to aimless hyperactivity. Groups of rats treated with 1,2 or 5 mg/kg amphetamine crossed in average 98, 216, and 369 squares, respectively, but the total area covered by the animals was on average 8.0,9.8, and 7.1% (Series no. 4, 5,6), the same as covered by rats devoid of a drive (Series no. 1). Moreover, amphetamine completely inhibited the goal-directed activity enhancement, induced by an innate (Series no. 7), or an acquired drive (Series no. 9). 

Table 2.1. Demonstration of the drive-induced, essential behavioral consequences in an open field in rats The qualitative difference between an innate-, or acquired-drive-induced purposeful hypermotility, due to enhanced orienting-searching reflex activity,3 on the one hand, and amphetamine-induced purposeless hypermotility, due to continuous release of catecholamines from their intraneuronal stores, on the other ...

To ecphorize already fixed chains of ICRs and activate acquired drives does not require significant effort. In contrast, the acquisition of new information, the transformation of a naive cortical neuron into an experienced one, is the most complicated operation. It requires the highest energy investment and is therefore the most vulnerable function of the cortical neurons. Clinical experiences, based on thousands of reliable case histories, support this conclusion. 

The leading idea of this monograph is the view that in a species capable of acquiring drives the function of the cortical neurons changes in response to training in three consecutive phases. Each of these represents a characteristic form of behavior, as follows ... 

Only a limited number of species possess the ability to fix ICRs and acquire drives. Among them the horse, elephant and camel were trained by humans to help them in their hard work, the dog and cat are the most popular pets, while the anthropoid apes, the dolphin and the laboratory rat seem to be especially suitable species for the experimental analysis of fixation of ICRs and the acquisition of drives. We used the rat for this purpose. 

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