Scientists have long studied the actions that impact basic survival in various domains of life, such as defense, foraging, reproduction, thermoregulation, and so on, as to reveal the nature of emotion. Each domain is characterized by a repertoire of distinct actions, and each action is presumed to be caused by a dedicated neural circuit, called a survival circuit. Survival circuits are said to be triggered by sensory events in the world, producing a range of actions from obligatory, stereotypic reflexes to more flexible, deliberate responses. In this paper, we consider recent evidence from behavioral ecology that even so-called ‘reflexes’ are better understood as purposeful, flexible actions that unfold across a range of temporal trajectories. Reflexes are highly context-dependent and tailored to the requirements of the situation. We then consider the neuroscience of motor control, which suggests that motor actions are assembled by neural populations, not triggered by simple circuits. Finally, we consider the value of these suggestions for understanding both species-general and species-specific contributions to emotion.

科学家们长期研究了影响生活各个领域（例如防御，觅食，繁殖，体温调节等）的基本生存的行为，以揭示情感的本质。每个域的特征都在于不同的动作，并且每个动作都假定是由专用的神经回路（称为生存回路）引起的。生存回路据说是由世界上的感官事件触发的，产生了从强制性，陈规定型的反射到更灵活的，有意识的反应的一系列动作。在本文中，我们考虑了来自行为生态学的最新证据，即甚至所谓的“反射”也可以更好地理解为在一系列时间轨迹上展开的有目的，灵活的动作。反映高度依赖于上下文，并根据情况的要求进行调整。然后，我们考虑运动控制的神经科学，这表明运动动作是由神经群体聚集的，而不是由简单的电路触发的。最后，我们认为这些建议对于理解一般物种和特定物种对情绪的贡献具有重要意义。