Neurobiology of “Umwelt” RESEARCH AND PERSPECTIVES IN NEUROSCIENCES Fondation Ipsen Editor Yves Christen, Fondation IPSEN, Paris (France) Editorial Board Albert Aguayo, McGill University, Montreal (Canada) Philippe Ascher, Ecole Normale Supérieure, Paris (France) Alain Berthoz, Collège de France, CNRS UPR 2, Paris (France) Jean-Marie Besson, INSERM U 161, Paris (France) Anders Bjorklund, University of Lund (Sweden) Floyd Bloom, Scripps Clinic and Research Foundation, La Jolla (USA) Joël Bockaert, Centre CNRS-INSERM de Pharmacologie Endocrinologie, Montpellier (France) Pierre Buser, Institut des Neurosciences, Paris (France) Jean-Pierre Changeux, Collège de France, Institut Pasteur, Paris (France) Carl Cotman, University of California, Irvine (USA) Steven Dunnett, University of Cambridge, Cambridge (UK) George Fink, Medical Research Council, Edingburgh (UK) Fred Gage, Salk Institute, La Jolla (USA) Jacques Glowinski, Collège de France, Paris (France) Michel Lacour, CNRS URA 372, Marseille (France) Michel Le Moal, INSERM U 259, Bordeaux (France) Gary Lynch, University of California, Irvine (USA) Brenda Milner, McGill University, Montreal (Canada) John Olney, Washington University Medical School, Saint Louis (USA) Alain Privat, INSERM U 336, Montpellier (France) Allen Roses, Duke University Medical Center, Durham (USA) Constantino Sotelo, INSERM U 106, Paris (France) Jean-Didier Vincent, Institut Alfred Fessard, CNRS, Gif-sur-Yvette (France) Bruno Will, Centre de Neurochimie du CNRS/INSERM U 44, Strasbourg (France) A. Berthoz • Y. Christen Editors Neurobiology of “Umwelt” How Living Beings Perceive the World ABC Editors Berthoz, Alain CNRS UMR 9950 Collège de France 11 Place Marcelin Berthelot 75231 Paris Cedex 05 France
[email protected] ISSN: 0945-6082 ISBN: 978-3-540-85896-6 Christen, Yves Fondation IPSEN Pour la Recherche Thérapeutique 65, quai georges Gorse 92650 Boulogme Billancourt Cedex-France
[email protected] e-ISBN: 978-3-540-85897-3 Library of Congress Control Number: 2008934399 c 2009 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg ° This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilm or in any other way, and storage in data banks. Duplication of this publication or parts thereof is permitted only under the provisions of the German Copyright Law of September 9, 1965, in its current version, and permission for use must always be obtained from Springer. Violations are liable to prosecution under the German Copyright Law. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. Printed on acid-free paper springer.com Foreword At the beginning of the 20th century, German biologist Jakob von Uexk¨ull created the concept of Umwelt to denote the environment as experienced by a subject. This concept of environment differs from the idea of passive surroundings and is defined not just by physical surroundings, but rather is a “subjective universe”, a space weighted with meaning. Based on this perspective, a living organism, no matter how basic (such as the tick studied by von Uexk¨ull), creates its own universe when it interacts with the world and as this same time the