Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Neurology, Psychiatry and Brain Research journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/npbr Inner speech mis-exaptation can cause the “Hubris” that speeds up ecosystem over-exploitation Luigi F. Agnati a,b, ⁎ ,1 , Diego Guidolin c,1 , Manuela Marcoli d,e,1 , Guido Maura d,1 a Department of Diagnostics, Clinical and Public Health Medicine, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Modena, Italy b Department of Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden c Department of Neuroscience, University of Padova, Padova, Italy d Department of Pharmacy, University of Genova, Genova, Italy e Center of Excellence for Biomedical Research CEBR, University of Genova, Genova, Italy ARTICLE INFO This article is dedicated to Prof. Faustino Savoldi (1930–2016) and to Prof. Peter W. Barlow (1942–2017). Keywords: Ecosystem Exaptation Pollution Sixth mass extinction Survival unit ABSTRACT Each living organism is a component of an ecosystem, as Bateson stated, “The unit of survival is organism plus environment”. Accordingly, the main aim of the present article is to analyse the place of human beings in the ecosystem, taking into account their peculiar characteristic of contraption-makers, and hence of modifiers of the ecosystem. This characteristic has been of paramount importance to the evolutionary success of homo sapiens, but, especially in the last century, it has been potentially dangerous for the entire ecosystem, and hence for human survival. The term “Hubris” refers to the mis-exaptation of these creative human capabilities, which can result in “mental illness” and prompt homo sapiens to believe in his godlike power over the ecosystem. Some neurobiological aspects related to Hubris are briefly discussed in relation to the pathogenetic changes caused by human overexploitation of the ecosystem. In conclusion, there is an urgent need for humans to take long-term responsibility for their dealings with the ecosystem, not only because severe physical and mental illnesses are caused by dangerous man-made alterations of the ecosystem, but also because these psychic disorders are part of a positive feedback that is able to shatter crucial components of the entire “survival unit”. A brief illustration of this point from the standpoint of available mathematical models of human-environment interactions can be found in the ‘Appendix A’. 1. General premises Bateson clearly stated that, “The unit of survival is organism plus environment” (Bateson, 1972). Hence, each living being interacts with its ecosystem to optimize its possibilities of survival and reproduction by maintaining the fundamental chemico-physical parameters of its internal environment within appropriate set-ranges (i.e., its body homeostasis, see Bernard, 1865; Cannon, 1932; Schulkin, 2003). Natural selection operates on both the organism and the ecosystem, and evolutionary processes in principle allow more efficient interaction between the components of the unit of survival by means of appropriate changes in some of their features. As pointed out by Robertson (1991) and commented upon by Casagrande, Krajewski, and Viaro (2015), “the organisms that are being altered by evolution to adapt to their en- vironment are themselves a significant component of that environ- ment”. Thus, most environmental pressure is biotic rather than physical (Van Valen, 1985) and, in the case of human beings, the supra-systems - i.e. factors of the social context - play an important role (Agnati, Barlow et al., 2012; Schulkin, 2011; Schwartz, Zamboanga, Weisskirch, & Wang, 2010). In the framework of evolutionary processes, two concepts are of basic importance and will be used in the present paper, namely ex- aptation and mis-exaptation (Agnati, Barlow et al., 2012; Agnati, Marcoli, Agnati et al., 2017; Gould & Vrba, 1982), which can be briefly outlined as follows. The concept of exaptation can be defined in comparison with adaptation. While adaptation refers to a feature that emerges through natural selection on account of its current utility, exaptation has been defined as a feature that has not been produced by natural selection on account of its current utility, but upon which natural selection has subsequently operated to better adapt it to performing a new function that meets environmental requirements. Exaptation can also occur with regard to the mental capabilities that have played a crucial role in the evolutionary success of Homo sapiens by allowing the development of https://doi.org/10.1016/j.npbr.2018.05.006 Received 26 March 2018; Accepted 24 May 2018 ⁎ Corresponding author at: Department of Diagnostics, Clinical and Public Health Medicine, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Via Campi 287, I-41125, Modena, Italy. 1 All the authors have equally contributed. E-mail addresses: luigi.agnati@gmail.com, luigi.agnati@unimore.it (L.F. Agnati). Neurology, Psychiatry and Brain Research 30 (2018) 62–73 0941-9500/ © 2018 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved. T