Midterm 2 Flashcards
Code breaker
Something that takes advantage of a fixed behaviour
Baby cuckoo and great warbler
Cuckoos sneak their eggs into nests of other species so their chicks are raised by foster parents who don’t know any better because a red opened mouth is a sign stimulus to feed chicks for many birds. Cuckoos can be raised by great warblers due to code breaking
Brood parasites
Birds that sneak their eggs into other species nests to avoid parenting
Rove beetle and ant
Rove beetles take advantage of ants. Ants live underground and only respond to touch and smell. Rove beetles evolved to produce molecules similar to ants so they appear to be one. Rove beetles uses their antenae to touch ant in a way that makes them automatically regurgitate nectar into beetles mouth.
Animals with simple…………. get parasites on
Sign stimulus
Butterfly and ant example
A larval caterpillar of the Alcon Blue butterfly is carried by ants back to nest where they are fed and taken care of because they mimic the smell of the ants. The ants CNS thinks it’s one of their own.
However a slightly different ant species may just kill the larvae
Vibrations higher in frequency are called
Vibrations lower in frequency are called
Ultrasound
Infrasound
When bats were placed in a dark room with obstacles why didn’t they hit the structures?
They use ultrasound echolocation to here echoes to locate where things are
What happened when scientists blasted ultrasound frequencies into bat rooms
Bats bumped into things because they couldn’t tell what was their echoes and what was the blaring noise
How do insects hear
They have a pair of tympanum and air sacs around them to stop continuous vibrations. The tympanum are connected to one or more receptors (A1 or A2 receptors)
Frequency
Number of wave peaks per unit time
Pitch
Intensity
Also called amplitude (loudness) depends on the amount of energy used to generate the pressure wave
Animals use both …. and …. to hear
Frequency and amplitude
Stimulus filtering
Sensors only respond to certain types of sound as a way to conserve energy and not overwhelm organism with information
Receptor which is intensive to information not relevant to the animal
What do A1 and A2 sensors respond to
High frequency only
Sounds sensitive animals generally have
Parked or bilaterally places sensors with so,e distance between them
Properties of ultrasound-detecting auditory receptors of a noctuid moth
Low intensity at high frequency hitting A1 receptor= slight increased action potential, A2 doesn’t bother
Moderate intensity stimulus= Increased action potential and sooner response at A1, A2 threshold not hit
High intensity= A1 has fried info immediately at high frequency, A2 is activated by loudness
A1 and A2 neurons in moth ears affect what
The thoracic ganglion which relays the message or action potential via other neurons that connect with membranes surrounding muscle fibres where other depolarization events lead to contraction and thus a postural change
Bats produce continuous sound?
No they produce pulsating sound so they can listen and hear back echoes
Difference in bat and moth detection range
Moths= 30 m
Bats=3 m
Moths A1 receptor responde only to what type of sound
Pulsating sounds (bats)
If ultrasound continues it is likely not a bat so A1 stops firing
In months the rate of firing of the A1 is proportional to
Intensity so moth has information about distance and whether to approach or retreat
If low intensity moth still has time and bat isn’t in its own detection range
How might moths locate bats in space
- Did the sound hit the left “ear” louder and faster than right?
- if sound is equal bat is in front or behind
- if less intensity, bat is further
- if high intensity bat is close
Thoracic ganglion can integrate information and stimulate muscles to result in
Matching both sides so predator is directly behind (less of a target)
Where is the tympanum of moths
Under the wings
How can moths use wings to detect bats
Since tympanum is under wings if the sound of the bat is blocked when wings are down and A1 activity is decreased then the bat must be above. If wings are down and the sound is still just as loud, then bat is below.
Neurotransmitters
Chemicals that cause other nerves to be active or inactive
Imprinting is a result of
Genetic and environmental influence
Transduction
Action potential
Confusing action potential =
Interference
Bats have their own …. in squeaks so they can determine their own ….
Subsignal
Echo
(To a certain distance)
When a bat gets within 3 m and hears its own echo back, more …
Pulses increase=frequency and intensity increases so better quality information is more rapid
What advantages does the moth and the both have against each other
Moths can hear 10x the distance bats can
Bats fly faster
B cell receptor
In moths nervous systems and acts as a control group
When the moth is in mortal danger and A2 fires how does the moths behaviour change
Straight line flight is out the window and moths wings flap irregularity and change randomly to fly all over so bat has harder time catching it. Moths often dive into grass or behind a structure.
A2 triggers different FAP that overrides A1 receptor
These irradia flight continues after stimulus
Terminal buzz
Bat has closely located the moth, increased intensity and frequency in echoes
Moths A2 fires rapidly this causes a pattern in thoracic ganglion to shit down normal wing flight.
Instinctual behaviour vary in such ways…
Individual or short or long sequences of actions. Could be one component or many and doesn’t need to keep going. Whole complex could be from one stimulus or several for short or long durations
Which is more complex
Neural pathways for learning or instinctual behaviours
Learning- requires memory and adaptation
Acquisition
The learning or developing of a skill, habit or quality
How is info (memory) stored?
- permanent or semi permanent changes in inter-nerve connections or in the storage of certain molecules, possible by phosphorylation
- enlargement of the brain (hippocampus)
Learning
Any enduring or relatively permanent change in behaviour that occurs as a result of experiences or practice
Corvidae
birds likes crows, jays, magpies (smart birds)
Clark’s nutcracker
Impressive bird that feeds off a seasonally source by storing up to 33000 seeds in up to 2500 separate caches as far as 25 km away from its nest. Recovers 2/3 of stored seeds over winter months
-this is by memory because bird still inspects area of cache even if smell and visual cues are removed
Spatial memory of birds experiment
Scientists placed birds in aviary with artificial forest floor. Birds cache seeds and then were taken out of aviary. Floor was swept and visual cues were distorted and some seeds not placed back. Birds had created a spatial map of where seeds were even after =memory.
Successful by 65%
Experiment in Marsh Tits
Scientists made two groups of the birds, one given whole sunflower seeds, other given ground seeds (can’t be tucked in bark). The birds which whole seeds that used memory had larger hippo-campuses then other group.
Memory stimulation=larger brain
Spatial learning in chickadees experiment
Scientists drilled holes in bark and birds tucked seeds in, then scientists took some away and out Velcro over the holes. They kept track of how Long the birds inspected hoard sites. Found more time spent at holes where seeds were in originally and not no time at non hoard sites=memory
Difference in northern and southern chickadees
Cost of not storing enough seeds is greater in northern chickadees because of the harsh winter. Experiments showed Alaskan chickadees spent an average of only 2 inspections to a get a seed while in Colorado it was 8.
Habitual learning
A gradual lessening in response (a change in the likelihood of a response) to a stimulus as experience finds it to be harmless or unavoidable.
This is not neural adaptation or motor Fatigue!
It functions to inhibit or reduce the instances of activating innate releasing mechanisms
Wild animals can sometimes be tamed ifff
Repeated handling is not accompanied by harm
Instinct goes to completion with the exception of..
Habituation
Neurons may learn that instinct isn’t needed and so they lesson the affect
Thynnine Wasp
Females have no wings so they climb on flowers and release pheromone. The orchid is a code breaker and can mimic perfect pheromone to attract male wasps. Males try to copulate but are frustrated and don’t go back to that location anymore (habitual=lessening of Response to stimulation due to negative response)
What if orchid is moved?
Wasp will try to copulate again because it only remembers location
What is the problem with tamed animals
Never fully ride the behaviour and so the same stimulus in a slightly different way can trigger original behaviour
Associative learning
(Operant conditioning) the ability to form associations between formerly meaningless stimuli and reinforcements such a as reward or punishment .
Can be trial and error
Why do rats taste, wait and then eat?
They can not throw up so they check if food makes them sick first.
Rats in skinner boxes may accidentally push on lever and receive food and over time learn that
Lever=food
How can rats be trained not to drink certain water
Put a flavour like cinnamon in water, after they drink it expose them to x rays that make them nauseous. Over time rats won’t drink it thinking it’s the cinnamon that makes them sick
In rats
Taste can not be associated with …
And
Olfactory can not be associated with
Shock
Touch
Latent or exploratory learning occurs…
Without apparent reinforcements, but mostly found in situations where animals learn the local characteristics of their home range- usually increases he chance of biological success
Male meadow voles and prairie voles spatial learning
Male meadow voles are polygamous and their territory may contain 4-5 females Territories so they have a larger spatial problem that evolved to make them have better memories than females.
Prairie voles are monogamous so spatial memory is equal in male and females
Female brown headed cowbird example
Are brood parasites: watch multiple different species as they nest, store info on where the nest is and what stage of development it is. Then when laying eggs the female will go back to the places that have a couple eggs already and lay one in each. Females have larger hippo-campuses than males since males don’t have such a complex spatial problem
Do other birds that evolved from a similar ancestor as brown headed cow birds have larger hippocampuses in the females?
No, red winged blackbirds and grackles are equal amongst males and females
Characteristics of learning
When is learning likely to be positively selected for?
—species with Long life spans (time to experiment and learn)
—for animals in unpredictable environments (probability of doing right thing by instinct is low, sampling necessary)
—where cost of an initial mistake is low (don’t die)
How do elephants learn
Keep memory of where things are as well as have info passed down to them by elders
What kinds of species is learning irrelevant?
May flies for example only live 2 days so no learning can have any benefit
Belding’s Ground squirrels do what to identify family
Females live in close social squirrels and smell, the scent glands on their backs and mouths to identify family. If the odour matching their own they are family, if not they are not kin and therefore the squirrel becomes aggressive towards it
What happens if a hound squirrel is taken by c section and then brought back as an adult?
Rub a scent block on squirrel and have it smell it and identify it as it’s own. At first it will spend lots of time sniffing, later not much. Then when near family it will use that to identify. Spend not much time sniffing mom, more with grandma, lots with aunts and tons with stranger=danger
Do male beldings ground squirrels advanced at sniffing as well?
No as much, they leave early on and go all over mating, so scent isn’t as important
Imprinting
A learned behaviour but not infinitely flexible (genetic influence)
Konrad Lorenz imprinting Greylag Geese
- male ducks and geese imprint the first thing they see after hatching as their mother.
- females know genetically what a female mother looks like.
Communication
Production of a signal, measurable in the language of physics or chemistry that alters the response patterns of another individual
Requires participation of two organisms, but can be deliberate or undeliberate
Deliberate signalling vs. Non deliberate signalling
Deliberate- both organisms participate knowingly
Ex: moth leaves pheromone for male to follow
Non deliberate- only one organism participates knowingly
Ex: you walk barefoot in a forest accidentally scent and a wolf follows it
Why is communication important
Behaviours do not occur for no reason. They require a stimulus from transmitted information (proximate cause of behaviour)
