Nervous systems, hormones, behaviour Flashcards
what is cognition?
give an example
what do they all do?
problem-solving ability
tool making
e.g. humans
primates (chimps etc)
New Caledonian crows
choose tools than can do the job
-> then alter tools if they aren’t suitable
explain an example of cognition:
dog communication
humans domesticated dogs ~30,000 ya
selective breeding
- ability to communicate well with humans
e. g. experiment between hand-reared dogs vs wolf pups
- > dogs can read human cues better than wolves
explain an example of cognition:
wasp face recognition
P. fuscatus have v different faces
P. metricus have v similar faces
experiment shows
P.fuscatus are able to tell faces of their conspecifics better than other species or manipulated faces
compared to P. metricus
why do P.fuscatus need good facial recognition compared to P.metricus?
multiple female founders of colony compete for dominance
- need to learn the dominance heirarchy
P.metricus has solitary females
what is the social brain hypothesis?
what is it also called?
advanced problem solving needed to interact with conspecifics
(cooperate with or dominate over them)
-> increases reproductive success in social species
Machiavellian intelligence hypothesis
what are Circadian rhythms?
are they internal or external?
biological clocks
cyclical patterns that control many behaviours
- sleep
- bird calling at certain times of day
internal rhythm
BUT timing is set by external cues = entrainment
what is the process of circadian rhythm regulation?
- sunlight or other external cues
- sensory receptors
- pacemaker
- observed rhythms:
- locomotory patterns
- feeding behaviours
- hormone release patterns
- other rhythms
what is the master clock?
the highly conserved, per gene (periodic)
- 24hr cycle transcription in mammals, fruit flies, honey bees
give an example of Circadian rhythms of annual cycles
ground squirrels
- same periods of hibernation every year
explain migration in Swainson’s thrush
2 subspecies
- inland vs coastal migration
- hybrids direction depends on ancestry
found that direction was associated with genomic region containing clock gene
-> some difference in their Circadian rhythms that’s making them respond differently to cues so they fly different directions
explain the stimulus processing experiment in zebra fish prey responses
- embedded larvae in agar
- cut agar so tails were free but head was stuck
- played them a video of a dot and observed their tail movement which represented prey response
- used machine learning to classify prey capture vs other swimming
how did they determine which area of the zebra fish brain was activated by the stimulus?
transparent brain activity was monitored live
found a distinct neural circuit for prey detection
- verified with paramecia (actual prey)
ablation of this region
-> 60% reduction in prey capture behaviour
what is the type of experiment called where you raise 2 species in the same environment?
what does it test?
common garden experiment
OR
transplant experiment
the effect of environment
what are the effects of testosterone?
how is this shown in red deer stags?
sexual desire
aggression
sexual selection
- have male-male competition stimulated by increase in testosterone
(related to Circadian rhythms - breeding season)
describe mating systems in voles
what is this due to?
montane voles
= promiscuous
prairie
= monogamous
after 24hrs
- prairie have a great increase in spending time with their partner than the stranger than montane do
monogamous males
= higher expression of vasopressin receptor
monogamous females
= higher levels of oxytocin
