Introduction

Abstract

Ethology and neurophysiology were once two widely separated areas of biology. Although behavior is obviously generated by the nervous system and its associated sense organs and muscles, its early study was primarily concerned with formulating an internally consistent system of principles to explain behavior without actually investigating the neurophysiological basis of these principles. Such an approach is both legitimate and practical, and every science dealing with problems of a certain complexity uses a similar approach. In chemistry, for example, it was and still is much more reasonable to formulate and work within an intrinsic system of principles than to wait for such laws to be deduced from nuclear physics.