What interests us here is that this mechanism of sign stimuli observed in animals, which trigger neural circuitries and initiate stereotypical behavior, may likewise play a role in human artistic meaning-making and creative intuition. Although much of the knowledge on subcortical circuitries is obtained in animals, they are likely highly conserved across vertebrate, such as humans (Wei, Talwar & Lin, 2021). We can therefore strongly surmise that humans use a similar innate communication system that underlies meaning-making. We introduce the term 'core images' to refer specifically to universal human sign stimuli. The term 'image' is understood as a mental representation, an idea, or conception. By this we mean any form of innate stereotypical human expression, including images, but also sounds, textures, body movements, etc, that are cross-culturally prevalent and understood. 

For some animals, scholars have been able to identify these innate sign stimuli. For example, grasshoppers, crickets, and katydids use species-specific acoustic signals to attract and to identify their mates, through a process called stridulation. A sound is produced by rubbing legs or wings against each other. What we may call a 'song pattern', is usually produced by the male, which is then detected and recognized by the female, who will approach the male phonotactically. (Ronacher, 2019)

In humans, however, these core images manifest themselves in disguise. According to archeologist Adolf Bastian: “Nowhere are the elementary ideas to be found in a pure state”.  They always appear to be impregnated with local culture in their outward form. As Campbell (1991) notes when comparing mythology, “This gives that interesting quality of seeming to be ever the same, though ever changing”.  Given the fact that there is no such thing as a human being that is abstracted from all sociological conditioning, it is a real challenge to distinguish in the products of human expression the core images, from the cultural adaptation of these signs.  There are very few examples of unimprinted sign stimuli on the level of human ethnology, says Cambell, “this is what has made it possible for students of the phenomenology of our species to write, sometimes, as though there were in the human race no inherited structuring system whatsoever.”

For example, if we notice that a certain color corresponds to a certain shape, how do we know whether this is related to the internal organization of the nervous system or to accidental external similarities and cultural customs? Even if most people agree that a heart shape corresponds to a red color, we are not sure whether this is learned by convention or not.

Nevertheless, deciphering the biological signaling system is possible, particularly by looking for signs that appear universal, and simultaneously by studying the underlying mechanism that form them.  One way to do this is to look at man's earliest symbolic expressions, such as are found in cave paintings dating back to around 50,000 years ago. It seems logical to assume that Paleolithic humans were much more strongly connected to the elements of nature than humans in present times. Moreover, they knew no written language; all their communication took place through vocal sounds, images, dance, and music. In his study into what he calls natural art, Cabeça (2021) explains that the first and visceral constraints of any biological or social being are survival and continuity, and that every social behavior can be reduced to this. He found that these two constraints can be traced in the very oldest forms of human expression. Paleolithic man painted hunting scenes that guarantee the survival, and fertility symbols that guarantee the continuity of the species.  From there, an extremely varied, and increasingly complex range of art and myths evolved.

Given the difficulties in trying to uncover the core images in human expressive production, the SCS can only offer a conjecture, a hypothesis. It is by collecting and connecting the multitude of data from anthropology, sociology, religious studies, design sciences, psychology, etc., that out of the vagueness, contours begin to emerge. 

From the above, we may assume that the underlying mechanism for the human generation and comprehension of meaning is situated in the nervous system. In the next chapter, we are going to lay the foundation for the SCS architecture, by examining the way neurons communicate.