You connect neurons by steering the growth cones through chemical gradients. Using the genes that affect large number of neurons at once.
Directly effecting neural growth patterns isn’t the only way for genes to effect human behavior. Consider for example, the effect on human behavior of drugs like caffeine, alcohol, anti-depressants, etc. Keep in mind any drug effect can be approximately stimulated by affecting any of the steps in the chemical cascade the drug uses.
Indeed. I’m not at all against the notion that the existing mechanisms can be adapted by evolution—whenever those are coded for. You can, most definitely, up or down regulate e.g. dopamine activity.
That is far cry from emergence of specialized modules, as per “organized into modules or mental organs, each with a specialized design that makes it an expert in one arena of interaction with the world. The modules’ basic logic is specified by our genetic program. Their operation was shaped by natural selection to solve the problems of the hunting and gathering life led by our ancestors in most of our evolutionary history” (Pinker 1997a, p. 21).
Directly effecting neural growth patterns isn’t the only way for genes to effect human behavior. Consider for example, the effect on human behavior of drugs like caffeine, alcohol, anti-depressants, etc. Keep in mind any drug effect can be approximately stimulated by affecting any of the steps in the chemical cascade the drug uses.
Indeed. I’m not at all against the notion that the existing mechanisms can be adapted by evolution—whenever those are coded for. You can, most definitely, up or down regulate e.g. dopamine activity.
That is far cry from emergence of specialized modules, as per “organized into modules or mental organs, each with a specialized design that makes it an expert in one arena of interaction with the world. The modules’ basic logic is specified by our genetic program. Their operation was shaped by natural selection to solve the problems of the hunting and gathering life led by our ancestors in most of our evolutionary history” (Pinker 1997a, p. 21).