How is instinct possible?

the language instinct

What instincts do all humans share?

All of them, by definition.

?

Instincts in humans can also be seen in what are called instinctive reflexes. Reflexes, such as the Babinski Reflex (fanning of the toes when the foot is stroked), are seen in babies and are indicative of stages of development. These reflexes can truly be considered instinctive because they are generally free of environmental influences or conditioning.

Additional human traits that have been looked at as instincts are:
sleeping,
altruism,
disgust,
face perception,
language acquisitions,
"fight or flight" and
"subjugate or be subjugated".

Some experiments in human and primate societies have also come to the conclusion that a sense of fairness could be considered instinctual, with humans and apes willing to harm their own interests in protesting unfair treatment of self or others.[1][2]

I'd like to add here that there are physiological reactions that are inheritable - not instinctual. For example (probably due to some Native American heritage on both sides of my family) I cannot be poisoned by mushrooms. I am acutely sensitive to the taste of alkaloids and experience a most revolting gut-wrenching bitterness at exposure levels that most people can't detect. I found this out when participating in a genetics program as a biology student. While undergoing genetic screening with a whole bunch of other "guinea pigs" we had to file through a station at which you were told to touch a piece of blotter paper to your tongue, and write down your impression. Every single person in front of me (that I could see) simply went through the station and shrugged (or less) and wrote something on their clip-board. When I tasted the paper, I retched and thought I might puke - it was that bad.

DNA methylation is a type of chemical modification of DNA that can be inherited and subsequently removed without changing the original DNA sequence. As such, it is part of the epigenetic code and is also the most well characterized epigenetic mechanism.[citation needed] Because Methylation is a common capability of all viruses for self non-self identification the epigentic code could be a persistent remnant of ancient viral infection events.[1]

DNA methylation involves the addition of a methyl group to DNA — for example, to the number 5 carbon of the cytosine pyrimidine ring — in this case with the specific effect of reducing gene expression. DNA methylation at the 5 position of cytosine has been found in every vertebrate examined. In adult somatic tissues, DNA methylation typically occurs in a CpG dinucleotide context; non-CpG methylation is prevalent in embryonic stem cells.[2][3]

In plants, cytosines are methylated both symmetrically (CpG or CpNpG) and asymmetrically (CpNpNp), where N can be any nucleotide but guanine. Some organisms, such as fruit flies, exhibit virtually no DNA methylation.

Research has suggested that long term memories in humans may be stored via DNA methylation

The brain uses DNA methylation to store memories, so that they can be copied as well. That is probably the basis of fear instincts as well in our more primitive brains.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNA_methylation

Is there any evidence for a DNA methylation based memory mechanism? I mean, I understand how methylation is implicated in long term changes of functionality in the brain in response to sensory information, but is it memory with respect to learning or is it a plasticity in functionality due to a stimuli? I understand the basis behind LTP and what have you, but I never heard of a methylation based mechanism. Please elucidate this concept!

Thanks.

Memories may be stored on your DNA

REMEMBER your first kiss? Experiments in mice suggest that patterns of chemical "caps" on our DNA may be responsible for preserving such memories.

To remember a particular event, a specific sequence of neurons must fire at just the right time. For this to happen, neurons must be connected in a certain way by chemical junctions called synapses. But how they last over decades, given that proteins in the brain, including those that form synapses, are destroyed and replaced constantly, is a mystery.

Now Courtney Miller and David Sweatt of the University of Alabama in Birmingham say that long-term memories may be preserved by a process called DNA methylation - the addition of chemical caps called methyl groups onto our DNA.

Many genes are already coated with methyl groups. When a cell divides, this "cellular memory" is passed on and tells the new cell what type it is - a kidney cell, for example. Miller and Sweatt argue that in neurons, methyl groups also help to control the exact pattern of protein expression needed to maintain the synapses that make up memories.

They started by looking at short-term memories. When caged mice are given a small electric shock, they normally freeze in fear when returned to the cage. However, then injecting them with a drug to inhibit methylation seemed to erase any memory of the shock. The researchers also showed that in untreated mice, gene methylation changed rapidly in the hippocampus region of the brain for an hour following the shock. But a day later, it had returned to normal, suggesting that methylation was involved in creating short-term memories in the hippocampus (Neuron, DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2007.02.022)...

I just googled that and it said on wiki that it's a common misconception that googling is an instinct?

Now I'm just confused?

Is it true that if you type Google into Google it can break the internet?