In every species in which it occurs, the imprinting process determines behavioural perception. During brief windows of heightened neural plasticity, a specific stimulus can leave a lasting "imprint" on a nervous system. Once the window closes, the imprint is set forever - the die is cast.
This book introduces three new theories in order to identify the missing elements of ontogenetic plasticity:
• That ethological imprinting is a process trait present in all advanced species. ElementOP demonstrates this, in part through analysis of splits in the animal phylogenetic tree, where non-convergent instances of imprinting are used to indicate shared ancestry.
• That the evolutionary advantage imprinting provides is an advantage to the evolutionary process itself, allowing evolution in relation to organism and object type, as opposed to form. ElementOP shows how imprinting removes the 'difference penalties' which would otherwise terminate perceptual mutations in new morphs.
• That ethological imprinting processes which shape behavioural perception are identifiable in humans. Three are proposed and described.
