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Drug instrumentalization and evolution: Going even further

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 November 2011

Daniel H. Lende
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL 33620. dlende@usf.eduhttp://blogs.plos.org/neuroanthropology/

Abstract

Müller & Schumann (M&S) deserve applause for their interdisciplinary examination of drug use, evolution, and learning. Further steps can deepen their evolutionary analysis: a focus on adaptive benefits, a distinction between approach and consummatory behaviors, an examination of how drugs can create adaptive lag through changing human niche construction, the importance of other neurobehavioral mechanisms in drug use besides instrumentalization, and the importance of sociocultural dynamics and neural plasticity in both human evolution and drug use.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

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References

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