From Nance Ross:

Re: Built-in brain “templates” may clue tots to threats (Sept. 18): Why should it be so surprising that humans would have such defensive templates built in? I watch my baby pigeons cower if a crow or hawk flies over, and have observed puppies making swimming motions when held over water, without ever seeing their parents in water, or swimming. We are part of the animal world, and I am sure that no baby is a “clean slate” at birth. I will pick up mice, snakes and have even handled a bat that got stuck in the attic, but come apart with panic when I see even a tiny spider... bet that was there from a long line of ancestors who programmed it over the eons.

Ms. Nance Ross