releasing mechanism

noun

Ethology.

1. a hypothetical control complex in the central nervous system of animals that triggers the appropriate behavioral response to a releaser.

Example Sentences

At the same time, the ethologists described an “innate releasing mechanism”, a slower orchestration of these fast responses that increases the probability that a fundamental behaviour such as mating will occur.

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According to this model, the ritual movements of mating are the fixed-action patterns and the neuropeptides are the innate releasing mechanism.

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An even simpler explanation is that that contagious yawning is the result of a releasing mechanism – in other words, seeing someone yawn flips the yawning-switch in the brain, and that makes you yawn.

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Some tap holders are also constructed the same as this die holder, so far as the releasing mechanism is concerned.

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Chet paid no heed; his every thought—his whole being, it seemed—was focused upon the lever that turned so slowly, that let fall, at last, a lock whose releasing mechanism clanged loudly through the metal wall.

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