Chapters 1 - 5: Intoduction to Animal Behavior Flashcards
1
Q
What are the four major questions to ask about behavior? Who postulated them?
A
What is the proximate (immediate) cause of the behavior - “how does physiology cause behavior + what is the immediate stimuli”
How does the animal’s development change the behavior - “does behavior occur at all ages + does animal use sensory and motor abilities to modulate the behavioral pattern”
How does the behavior change reproductive success - “does the behavior affect its survival and reproduction + are there tradeoffs b/w the two areas”
How does the behavior reflect evolutionary history - “how does one species behavior relate to another closely related species + how did it originate + how has the behavior changed”
A.) They were postulated by Nikolaas Tinbergen.
2
Q
What are the steps to studying animal behavior?
A
- Develop a working hypothesis
- Predict a likely outcome of an experiment or natural observation
- Collect data
- Determine whether prediction is correct or false
- Accept or reject hypothesis
3
Q
What is the Darwinian theory?
A
Critical examination of how the behavior has been shaped over evolutionary time and how the individual’s behavior affects its reproductive success/survival rate.
4
Q
What is Group Selection Theory?
A
Analyzes how a given behavior helps as group survive and how the group’s behavior impacts overall survival/reproductive success.
5
Q
Why are prairie voles monogamous as opposed to their polygynous kin?
A
- Vasopressin (hormone) is released during copulation
- Male prairie voles have more brain receptors for vasopressin than other vole species
- Vasopressin appears to stimulate a reward center in the brain
- Vasopressin strengthens pair bond with female
- Have a genetic difference in the vasopressin receptor molecule (V1aR) - makes these voles more sensitive to vasopressin
6
Q
What happens to polygynous species when their vasopressin receptor gene is modified to match prairie voles?
A
They become pair-bonded/form pair-bonds.
7
Q
What is the ultimate determinant of the behavior? What is its evolutionary cause?
A
In the past, prairie vole males that formed close pair bonds produced more surviving offspring than males that were polygamous.
8
Q
What are proximate causes of behavior?
A
- Short-term effects; occur over one individual’s lifespan
- Genetic/Developmental mechanisms (e.g., Development of sensory-motor systems + Gene/environment interactions)
- Sensory/motor mechanisms (e.g, Nervous systems for detecting stimuli + Hormone systems for coordinating responses + Muscular-skeletal systems for responding)
9
Q
What are ultimate causes of behavior?
A
- Long-term effects; occur over evolutionary history
- History of behavior + selection shaping history of behavior
- Past and present usefulness of behavior in promoting lifetime reproductive success
10
Q
How does the Darwinian theory interpret ultimate causation?
A
Individuals of a species are variable
Variation is heritable
Some individuals survive and reproduce better than others due to their traits
11
Q
What does this Darwinian interpretation imply?
A
That individual reproductive success is the deciding factor in how traits are passed on over time, and that these successes throughout a species history is what shapes its genetics.
12
Q
What are the three possible hypotheses for Langur infanticide as an ultimate behavior?
A
- Infanticide is an abnormal behavior caused by overcrowding (pathological behavior; not adaptive)
- Infanticide causes females to stop lactating, so they become reproductively receptive more quickly (adaptive)
- Male langurs kill infants to regulate the population size (less competition for resources) and benefit the group (group selection)
13
Q
How do hormones impact proximate causation?
A
Endocrine glands can secrete more than one hormone, may have multiple and different effects on target cells, and different hormones can interact/influence each other.
14
Q
What parts constitute the endocrine system?
A
Adrenal Pituitary Hypothalamus Thyroid Pancreas Gonads (testes/ovaries)
15
Q
What do hormones affect?
A
Growth Metabolism Reactions to environmental stressors Aggression Reproductive behavior
16
Q
What are hormones capable of doing, changing, or influencing in the body?
A
- Affect the chance that a specific sensory input will result in a specific response
- Prime an animal for a behavior
- Trigger onset of a behavior
- Modify expression of an ongoing behavior
- Organize behavior systems during early development (e.g., brain organization)
17
Q
How is the ZENK gene in birds a demonstration of how genes code for specific traits?
A
In the zebra finch and in parrots, the ZENK gene is associated w/ bird song. Depending on how the song is being vocalized, the bird uses different parts of the brain to process either vocalizing the song or hearing it, as well as the familiarity of the w/ the song being sung.
18
Q
What is neuroethology concerned with?
A
How behavior plays out as a result of the physical organization of the brain. (e.g., gender differences in brain organization)
19
Q
What is an example of this?
A
Uni-hemispheric sleep in birds and marine animals, or when only one half of the brain is asleep and the other is awake.
20
Q
What two developmental factors are responsible for differences in bird song?
A
Innate variations (e.g., song is different at birth) versus environment exposure (e.g., hearing the song, social cues, etc.)
21
Q
Can bird calls change over time? What happens?
A
Yes, it can. In male white-crowned sparrows, the dialect of their call changes slightly over time; the accent shifts and became normalized the more time passed. Females prefer the new version over previous versions.
22
Q
What are the two hypotheses for why bird call has variation?
A
- Genetic differences cause differences in neural patterns
2. Environmental experiences early in life differ and result in different adult songs
23
Q
How did scientists test variation in learning bird song?
A
They transplanted baby sparrow eggs. Sparrows raised in isolation do learn to sing, but do not develop a normal call. On the other side of the coin: if sparrows are still raised in isolation but exposed to adult calls, they do develop a normal call/dialect.
24
Q
What does this mean?
A
Some environmental component is necessary to properly vocalize the song. Song production is innate, but proper vocalization is learned.
25
What happens to bird call if the sparrow is deafened?
Baby sparrows exposed to adult calls but deafened before they start to sing don’t develop normal calls. If raised in isolation w/o any exposure, they still do not develop normal calls. In short, deaf sparrows never develop a normal call.
26
What happens if they are exposed to the calls of another species?
Baby sparrows exposed only to the calls of a different species don’t develop a normal call.
27
What does this mean about how baby sparrows develop a “normal” call?
White-crowned sparrow must be exposed to their own species’ call early in life (i.e., there is a critical period). They must be able to hear their own call and practice in order to develop the proper call.
28
What is a critical period?
Period of early development when exposure to a stimulus is required for proper development; after this time period, learning the behavior may be impossible.
29
What also plays a role in developing the call? Why is this aspect important?
A.) Social interaction.
B.) Birds raised in captivity that can see and hear other species develop the call of that other species instead of their own call.
30
What happens to Galah hatchlings when their nests are stolen by pink cockatoos?
Hatchling galahs develop appropriate galah begging and alarm calls. However, they develop pink cockatoo contact (social) calls.
31
What are the key underlying mechanisms of song development in birds?
- Brain involvement in birdsong
- Storage of song (memory)
- Sound production
- Comparison of early song to song memories
32
How does testosterone development affect bird song?
Males and females are genetically different (ZZ vs ZW chromosome). If there is elevated testosterone, then there is more singing behavior. Finally, testosterone affects brain development, and male and female birds have different neural circuitry.
33
What is an example of female-male differences in w-c sparrows?
Male w-c sparrows produce estrogen in their brain cells, and estrogen is involved in development of neural pathways related to control/integration of birdsong. If the experimenter adds estrogen to female chicks, then they have a masculinized brain and singing behavior.
34
How do genes impact birdsong?
1. Gene activity differs at different stages of development
2. More/less of certain substances produced at different stages
3. Timing of chromosome/gene/hormonal interactions affects development of brain structures
4. Environmental feedback affects brain/gene activity
35
What brain areas are implicated when the ZENK gene is active in birds at different levels of singing behavior?
A.) Quiet room; no singing -> no activity
B.) Hearing & singing -> HVC, IMAN, Area X
C.) Hearing Only -> HVC, shelf, CHV, LI, IMAN, L3, Area X
D.) Singing Only -> HVC, IMAN, Area X
36
What does the ZENK gene seem to imply about the evolutionary development of bird song?
1. ZENK activity during song production causes a measurable increase in a protein
2. All 3 lineages with learned birdsong show ZENK activity in similar parts of the brain
This suggests that this trait did not evolve independently three different times; each time it evolved was likely related to prior evolution within birds as a whole.
37
What are the ultimate causes of variation in bird song?
- Species identification (identity announcement)
- Singing males gain by warning off males of their own species
- Distinctive call attracts females
38
What are the reproductive benefits of bird song that might cause it to develop?
- Fine-tuning of call appropriate to acoustic environment (different habitats cause different sound degradation)
- Ability to match song with appropriate social environment demonstrates health, condition, competitive ability
39
What are the three main components of the development of behavior?
1. Hormones
2. Sensory signals from other individuals
3. Neural activity stimulated by environment
40
What is interactive theory of development?
Development requires both genetic information and environmental inputs (e.g., with worker bee development, as a bee's behavioral phenotype changes from nurse to forager during her life, there must be changes in the interplay between genes and some aspect of the individual's environment)
41
How are bee foraging behaviors an example of this?
Honeybees transform and change occupations during their lifetimes - they also change occupations based on need (e.g., when there are no adult bees, they can become foragers regardless of age and vice versa).
42
How does this process work?
Genotype affects phenotype
Cues transformation to next stage
Nervous system changes
Behavior changes
Food consumed by worker bees versus queen bees is different; queen’s eat royal jelly. This produces variation in how the genes are expressed. The social environment can also influence the hormonal variations that impact gene expression--eythl oleate made by foragers produces more foragers, for example.
43
What is imprinting?
Early learning and social interactions determine adult behavior; very immediate and very permanent impact on neural circuitry. (e.g., geese imprinting on mother to learn to follow her)
44
What is an example of cross-fostering in song birds?
Blue tits and great tits had their eggs transplanted into the nests of the other species. Great tits imprint on their parents whereas blue tits do not. In the case of great tits, because they were socialized by a different species, their reproductive success dropped substantially when they attempted to pair-bond w/ mates. Blue tits did not imprint and had about 80% mating success irrespective of being cross-fostered.
45
What are the causes of seed cache memory? Why is this specialized behavior important in bird development for, say, Clark’s nutcracker?
1. Structural and biochemical effects on brain in response to sensory info associated with food storage
2. Differences in size of hippocampus (spatial memory); larger spatial memory in seed caching birds
46
What is the evidence for seed cache specifically increasing hippocampus size?
For marsh tits raised in captivity and feed either ground up or whole seeds, if they are raised w/ the opportunity to eat whole seeds, they develop a larger hippocampus b/c they will chose to cache the seeds. Marsh tits eating ground seeds do not develop this difference.
47
What are two ways individuals within a species population develop differently?
1. Associations with related individuals in paper wasp. Females recognize others that smell like the hive and cross-fostered females that acquire the hive scent are not attacked. Early olfactory experience changes behavior.
2. Belding’s ground squirrels who are raised apart will play nicely w/ their cross-foster siblings but not w/ squirrels they don’t know. Female ground squirrels will play nicely w/ sisters from their own litter, implying they can sense or smell their sisters.
48
What is kin recognition in ground squirrels?
Ground squirrels were allowed to investigate objects marked with others’ scents: closer relatives were less interesting (e.g., mother, grandmother, sister, etc.).
49
What happens to mice mothers w/ inactivated fos-B gene?
They do not perform proper maternal behavior such as gather pups and are unresponsive to their pups generally.
50
What happens to male mice with a Oxt gene knockout?
They have social amnesia and will continue to investigate a female w/o performing other exploration.
51
What is an example in garter snakes that single alleles can have an impact on behavior?
Coastal garter snakes eat slugs whereas inland garter snakes do not, and have no tongue-flicking behavior in response to slugs. Native snakes hatched in captivity also show this specific difference in prey selection, indicating that it is a genetic predisposition.
52
How much variation in migration in black warblers is accounted for by genetics?
30 to 50%.
53
What is developmental homeostasis?
Ability to develop normally despite defective genes or deficient environments.
54
What are the reproductive advantages to developmental homeostasis?
1. Mate choice can be influenced by many factors
2. Symmetry in body features
3. Asymmetry may signal genetic problems or sub-optimal development
4. Selecting for symmetry could result in better genes
5. Selecting for symmetry could result in a mate in excellent physical condition
55
What are some examples of symmetry influencing mate choice?
1. Symmetrical human faces are often rated as more conventionally attractive than less symmetrical faces
2. In wolf spiders, symmetric males are preferred--they are more visible to females b/c of ultraviolet light and they are understood as more attractive
56
What are some effects of developmental homeostasis?
1. Tends to restrict individual variation within a population
2. Leads to greater likelihood of individuals having adaptive phenotype (e.g. symmetry)
57
What is a polyphenism?
The phenomenon where two or more distinct phenotypes are produced by the same genotype.
58
What are some examples of polyphenisms?
1. Type of food can change ants into solider ants or supersolider ants, as well as bees into queen bees
2. Tadpoles resort to cannibalism based on size and etc., but will be able to discriminate and avoid tadpoles that are related to them
3. Cichlid males change color based on whether or not they are submissive or dominant; if separated from the dominant cichlid, the submissive male will become colorful and reproductive
59
When does selection favor learning?
1. When environment is unpredictable
| 2. When unpredictability has reproductive implications
60
What is an example of adaptive learning to spatial cues?
Wasps that learn to recognize the locations of orchids that mimic female pheromones. Although they are tricked into think the orchid is a female, they eventually learn to ignore and avoid the orchids altogether.
61
What are examples of gender differences in adaptive learning?
1. In polygynous meadow voles, males have better spatial ability to help them locate many mates living on their home territory; this is not present in monogamous prairie voles.
2. Brown-headed cowbirds have larger hippocampi b/c they leave their eggs in host nests to be raised by other birds. In order to find and stalk potential host nests, they need larger hippocampi.
62
What is sensitization to a stimulus?
Animal becomes more sensitive to the same stimulus over time.
63
What is habituation to a stimulus?
Animal becomes less responsive to the same stimulus over time.
64
What is a conditioned stimulus?
Stimulus that initially fails to produce a response but does produce a response when paired with a second (unconditioned) stimulus.
65
What is the unconditioned stimulus?
Stimulus that initially fails to produce a response but does produce a response when paired with a second (unconditioned) stimulus.
66
What is operant conditioning?
An animal learns to associate a stimulus w/ its consequence(s). Response is reinforced by reward and/or punishment.
67
What is strange about the dietary behaviors of vampire bats?
They do not develop taste aversions even though other species of bat do.
68
What is an instinct?
A behavior pattern that is performed completely and correctly on the first try even if the animal has no previous experience doing that behavior.
69
What is another term for instinct?
Fixed action pattern.
70
What is an innate releasing mechanism?
The neural network that detects cues (signals) and activates instinctual behavior (fixed action patterns).
71
How is egg retrieval in geese a fixed action pattern?
Geese will retrieval any object that activates the innate releasing mechanism, even if this object is not properly shaped like an egg. It is just responding to the motion of what could be an egg.
72
How is the mating behavior of the Julodimorpha bakewelli or Beer beetle an example of a fixed action pattern?
A male beer beetle will attempt to mate with a beer bottle if it is the proper color of a female beer beetle. It will do this automatically with no interest in checking whether or not it is actually mating w/ a female.
73
What is code-breaking?
A species evolves to exploit the fixed-action pattern (FAP) of another species; causes the other species to enter fixed-action pattern in response to its code-breaking behavior.
74
What do cuckoos do that is an example of code-breaking?
They take advantage of the automatic feeding pattern of warblers so that they can be fed by the host bird until they are full grown.
75
How do bolas spiders code-break?
They mimic the pheromones of female moths and lure male moths to their webs w/ a bead of liquid. They then lure male moths and lasso them with the web.
76
What effect does high frequency sound have on bats?
Bats use high-frequency sound (ultrasound) to hunt and avoid obstacles at night; high-frequency sound does interfere with bat navigation b/c they are hearing more sound than what actually exists, or are becoming disoriented.
77
How do moths escape bats? What neural behavior is at play?
Two neurons are involved:
A1 - receptor responds to low-intensity sounds; fires more often in response to sound pulses than steady noise; adjusts response to increase in bat buzzing sound
A2 - receptor fires only when ultrasound is very loud (close)
When A2 fires, the moth does a sudden dive downward to avoid the bat.
78
How do crickets use sensory input to respond to bats?
1. Auditory receptors (on cricket legs) sense ultrasound
2. Interneurons (int-1 or AN2) are more stimulated by more intense (louder) sound and produce faster motor response
3. Inactivation of int-1 cells leads to failure of the escape (twisting) mechanism
4. Activation (stimulation) of int-1 cells leads to abdominal bending (escape behavior) even if no ultrasound is present
This means that Int-1 activity is necessary and sufficient for escape behavior to occur.
79
What is stimulus filtering?
The ability to ignore some information in order to focus on biologically relevant information.
80
What are some examples of stimulus filtering?
1. Moth A1 receptors only respond to some sounds, as do moth A2 receptors
2. In the Midshipman, they sing at 400kz in the summer and females are very receptive to the sound; once mating season passes, females become insensitive to sounds above 100kz
81
What are central pattern generators?
A simple neural network can generate complex behaviors; CPGs play a “pre-programmed” set of messages that organize motor output. This produces the correct rhythm that can drive a motor pattern.
82
What is an example of an animal w/ a specific sensory mapping?
The star-nosed mole has more tactile sensitivity in its nose than anywhere else on the body b/c that has the most input from external stimulus.
83
What levels is sensory info filtered at?
1. Cellular level
2. Neural network level
Any information taken in is relevant to the organism’s biology and organized appropriately by the mapping.
84
What is another example of sensory differenced keyed to the animal’s biology?
Bluethroats can detect UV light. Birds with better reflectivity get more
mates faster; as a result, older males have more reflectivity. This is considered a signal of health and survival ability.
- many animals see in ultraviolet light, such as bees, spiders, and birds
85
What are examples of adaptive mechanisms in human behavior?
1. Auditory processing aids in language decoding (e.g. intonation, what sounds can be heard in the ear’s topographic map, etc)
2. Visual perception also aids in language (e.g., eye contact, low eye contact in autism or misplaced direction of the eyes)
86
What happens in clock-shifting?
Animals use the direction of the sun to navigate their environment, as well as the assumptions about time and their internal clocks.
87
What are examples of clock-shifting?
1. ) If you change the location of a bee hive by leaving them to sleep longer than usual, they will go to where the sugar water should be even though the direction is different b/c it's a different time of day.
2. ) When migrating, a homing-pigeon also uses the sun and possibly magnetic fields to navigate. If released at a different time than expected, they will follow the route as if it was the expected time instead.
3. ) For monarch butterflies, both the direction of natural sunlight and the presence of ultraviolet light are necessary for migration to occur.
88
How is migration organized in monarch butterflies?
1. UV light cues migration onset
2. Sun position cues flight direction
3. Polarized light helps cue sun position/direction
89
How do sea turtles migrate?
Captive experiment in book showed reliance of green turtles on magnetic fields. If experimenters adjust magnetic field, they shift the direction of the migration. In sea turtles, sunlight is NOT part of activating migration; they travel at night.
90
What 3 types of systems integrate behavior into structural patterns?
1. Neural command centers
2. Biological clocks
3. Hormonal signals
91
What are 3 examples of neural command centers?
1. Innate releasing mechanisms
2. Central pattern generators
3. Song control systems
92
How are praying mantises an example of a complex neural system?
1. They have several ganglion which coordinate greater movement
2. This coordination is directed by the Protocerebral ganglion
93
What happens if you cut a connection in a praying mantis?
Muscles in segment won’t react to stimuli (poking), but it will react to direct
electrical stimulation.
94
What causes a complete inactivation of neural activity?
Removing connections to the protocerebral ganglion and sub-esophageal ganglion.
95
What are the 2 major theories of behavioral scheduling?
1. An internal timing mechanism schedules behavior independent of environmental cues (endogenous oscillator)
2. Environmental cues signal the command centers to change behavior (exogenous cues; zeitgebers)
96
What is the biological clock of the brain?
SCN = suprachiasmatic nucleus in the hypothalamus; gets light input from retinal cells and elicits behavioral scheduling behavior.
97
What are circadian rhythms?
A rhythmic pattern of behavior that occurs regardless of environmental stimuli (e.g., presence of light).
98
What is free running?
A cycle of behavior or activity that is not matched to environmental cues.
99
What is entrainment?
Daily activity pattern is reset each day to coincide with environmental cues (e.g., light/time of day).
100
How are PER and TAU genes related to activity in the SCN/creation of behavioral scheduling?
1. Per and tau genes both produce products on a schedule
| 2. High PER protein causes TAU enzyme to be secreted (TAU breaks down PER)
