senses

Question 1

roles of sense

Answer 1

• sensory input to processing in the brain to motor response (behaviour )

Question 2

sensory modalities

Answer 2

-uses a range of different senses in different ways in which a (physical) environmental stimuli can be detected by an individual
-examples are: sight, taste, smell, touch, hearing, echolocation (extreme hearing), electroreception (electric impulses), magnetoreceptoion, pressure and proprioception (perception of movement)

Question 3

sensory ultraviolet light

Answer 3

-pollinating insects can detect UV light due to its short wavelength
-atlantic puffer and bluethroat have UV light in them

Question 4

cone cell types in birds and humans

Answer 4

-humans: e types of photoreceptors that translate light into nerve impulses, these travel up the optic nerve to the brain
-birds: have 4 types of cone cells and can see UV

Question 5

UV signals involved in sexual selection

Answer 5

-bluethroats had covered their UV patch with sunblock which reduced the amount of males reducing with them

Question 6

why is UV vision important

Answer 6

-peacock feather, the male attraction
-UV can allow predatory birds to detect urine rails of small animals

Question 7

olfaction: moths

Answer 7

2 types: pheromones and a general odour sensing systems e.g. food-derived odour
-male emperor moths can detect females from miles away due to large male antennae (which detect the pheromones)

Question 8

touch star-nosed mole

Answer 8

-lives underground in marshy soil
-tiny eyes but highly modified nose
-the ‘star’ is not equal sensitive and each appendage is not processed equally
-11 appendages
-appendage 11 has 7% of the timers organs but more than 10% of the nerve fibres
-star takes up most amount of brain cortex

Question 9

what’s the timers organs in a moles nose

Answer 9

specialised structures which changes in pressure

Question 10

which in the moles nose, are the most important appendages

Answer 10

-10 and 11, found close to the mouth therefore important so they don’t consume something bad for them

Question 11

hearing in noctuid moths

Answer 11

-moths ears are simple
-just consist of air sacs and 2 receptors (can’t detect pitch) in which signals are picked up and transferred to the thoracic ganglia and up to the brain

Question 12

neural activity of receptors

Answer 12

-can detect bat sonar and direction of sound which helps moth escape the bat

Question 13

neurology of moth ears

Answer 13

-bat ultrasound signal-> tympanum vibrates-> mechanical stimulation of receptor cells (both)-> stretch-sensitive channels open in membrane->Na+ flow in and change the electrical charge inside cell creating an action potential-> therefore avoiding action by moth

Question 14

advantage of 2 sensory cells

Answer 14

cells are’t equally sensitive so increases range of the moths hearing

Question 15

why do bats have squeaky voices

Answer 15

-a wave can only detect an object that is larger than half the wavelength
-so high pitched sounds are needed to detect small insects
-bat species that specialise on larger insects have deeper calls

Question 16

how do oilbirds communicate

Answer 16

-they roost and breed in caves and can navigate in total darkness using echolocation
-they use available clicks with longer wavelength meaning they can only distinguish relatively large objects

Question 17

what is stimulus filtering

Answer 17

-universal feature of sensory systems that typically focuses in information relevant to the animals survival or reproduction
-this occurs so the animal doesn’t get overwhelmed

Question 18

ormia flies and how they stimulus filter

Answer 18

-female deposits eggs on male crickets
-these eggs hatch and larvae burrow in cricket and then feed on the crickets malt and then turn into adult flies
-cricket doesn’t survive long after as the the gut insides are deposited into cricket

Question 19

tinbergan’s herring gull : responding to signals

Answer 19

-releaser stimuli set off fixed action patterns (pecking)
-highest relative pecking response for an artificial object that was red, mimicking the red dot on the gulls beak

Question 20

neural mechanisms in brain in gulls

Answer 20

-brain of the chick has a mechanism for detecting the relaxer stimulus and triggering and the begging FAP
-the FAP of the chick is instinctive, the brain circuitry behind the FAP is encoded in the chick’s genes rather than learned

Question 21

parasites exploiting releaser behaviour

Answer 21

-atemeles beetles are parasites in an nests
-ant responds to beetle by feeding them
-large blue Butterly caterpillars parasite ant nests by preying on larvae