The nervous system is evolutionarily conservative compared to the periphera
l appendages that it controls. However, species-specific behaviors may have
arisen from very small changes in neuronal circuits. In particular, change
s in neuromodulatory systems may allow multifunctional circuits to produce
different sets of behaviors in closely related species. Recently, it was de
monstrated that even species differences in complex social behavior may be
attributed to a change in the promoter region of a single gene regulating a
neuromodulatory action.