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Reciprocal Inhibition, Canalization & Stress-response Buffering
In a selective system, oftentimes differential amplification occurs via inhibition of competitors. In the nervous system most excititory pathways synapse with inhibitory neurons - and, most often the activation of a specific pathway involves suppressing or inhibiting the expression of other pathways that would require the use of the same structural components or resources.

Reciprocal inhibition allows the system to collapse to a solution, rather than calculate a solution. Under the conditions of canalization, this process can result in a set of reflexes that are adaptive under normal circumstances, but under stress conditions the inhibition can be released to reveal the latent variation that was outside the canalized pathway, offering potentially novel and on occasion adaptive, behavioral responses to novel stresses. There is an enormous amount of latent variation or "buffering" in a canalized system that allows the system to respond to stress rapidly.

The reservoir of latent inhibited networks just outside the conditioned range of behavior, is a reservoir of creativity and resourcefulness for the nervous system. There are pathways and networks of neuronal groups capable of exploring new possibilities and solutions outside the range of prior conditioning that lay latent and below threshold activation expect under extraordinary circumstances.