Introduction Flashcards
What are tim bergens 4 questions?
Function: why is the animal performing the behaviour?
Evolution: how did the behaviour evolve
Causation: what causes the behaviour to be performed
Development - how was the behaviour developed during the lifetime of the individual
What is egg retrieving in birds?
When a egg is put by the bird that is not hers she will drag the egg slowly to the nest
What eggs do the birds prefer for egg retrieving?
They prefer eggs that are larger and have more speckles
Why is the immune system referred to as black box
You know what goes in the box and comes out but not what happens in between this
What is the reflex arc made up of?
Sensory nuerons
Motor nuerons
Internueron
Ventral horn
What is a sensory nueron?
A nerve cell that are activated through sensory input from the environment
What is a motor nueron
A nerve cell forming part of the pathway along with impulses pass form the brain of the spinal cord to a muscle gland
What is a internueron?
Nuerons that are found exclusively in the central nervous system
What is a ventral horn?
A grey longitudinal column found within the spinal cord
What is the stretch reflex?
Stretch reflex involves an object being tapped on the patella to allow the knee to stretch out. The reflex that causes the muscles to stretch put it back into proportion to the other muscles.
How do motor nuerons make decisions based on sensory information?
When excited at a synapse the post synaptic cell produces a grade potential which produces EPSP. When these occur close together they sum temporal summation. Temporal summation creates a large graded potential will increases the chance of an action potential being created by a motor nueron.
What do motor nuerons have that take information from synapses?
Motor nuerons have branching dendrites that relieves input from the synapses. Each time a synapse is active causing ion channels to penetrate and a graded potential is created in the nuerone
How else is the degree of stretch signalled in the sensory nerve?
A sensory nerve isnt a nuerone. A nerve is a bundle of axons extending out from the central nervous system and the peripheral nervous system.
If there is a stronger stretch more sensory neurones are activated
If there is a smaller stretch less sensory neurones are activated
How do motor neurones make decisions based on that sensory information
Extra-cellular recording of sensory nerve = it picks up every signal from nerve spindles - it shows complete activity in a vague aspect.
Intra-cellular recording of motor nuerone = sharp electrodes penetrate straight into the motor nuerone and tells you exactly what happens.
How does the motor nuerone integrate inhibitory information?
When inhibited at a synapse neurones produce IPSP - inhibitory post synaptic potentials. These can be temporally and spatially summed
