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Animal Minds > Sensory Systems > Flashcards

Sensory Systems Flashcards

1
Q

What are the five fundamenals of sensation

A

Vision
Audition
Olfaction
Touch
Taste
Others

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2
Q

What is sensation in its most simple form?

A

Energy transduction

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3
Q

What is the basis of energy transduction?

A

In each sensory modality, a specific type of stimulus energy is transformed into neural responses that are processed by the brain

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4
Q

What are the five steps of sensing

A

Stimulus -> collection -> transduction -> spikes -> processing

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5
Q

Why do animals need to sense/measure signals in the world?

A

Finding food
Detecting predators
Finding suitable mates

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6
Q

What are the types of signals animals can measure?

A

Electromagnetic
Chemical
Mechanical

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7
Q

What are electromagnetic signals

A

Light
Heat
Electrical signals
Magnetic signals

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8
Q

What are chemical signals

A

Taste
Smell
Pheromones

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9
Q

What are mechanical signals

A

Pressure
Gravity
Sounds
Touch
Vibration

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10
Q

What are humans five senses

A

Touch
Taste
Vision
Audition
Olfaction

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11
Q

What are the three methods of determining what signals are sensed by animals

A

Electrophysiology
Natural behavior to relevant stimuli
Animal psychophysics

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12
Q

How does electrophysiology work

A

Measure sensory neuron responses

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13
Q

Give an example of electrophysiology

A

Attraction of male moths to female phermonesWhat

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14
Q

does electrophysiology not inform us about

A

Behavioral utility

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15
Q

What is behavioral utility

A

How and why animals behave the way they do

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16
Q

Give an example of a study that used natural behavior to relevent stimuli to determine signals

A

Johnston et al. (1993) tested whether hamsters could identify and discriminate between two other hamster’s scents
(hamsters mark their territories using their secretions)

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17
Q

Why is animal psychophysics necessary?

A

Natural behavior is very uncontrolled and sometimes cannot help prove hypotheses

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18
Q

What deos animal psychophysics measure

A

How much information is processed by the senses quantitatively

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19
Q

What is a significant animal psychophysics study

A

Remy and Emerton (1989)

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20
Q

What did Remy and Emerton study

A

the range of light waves visible to pigeons

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21
Q

Describe Remy and Emerton’s study and results (not on slide show)

A
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22
Q

How did eyes evolve?

A
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23
Q

What are the three types of eyes

A

Ocelli
Lens and retina
Compound eyes

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24
Q

What are ocelli and how do they work?

A
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25
What are lens and retina and how do they work?
26
What are compound eyes and how do they work?
27
Eye placement
28
Advantages of color vision
Helps us contrast objects from backgrounds (add more)
29
Different color receptors
30
Ultraviolet vision
10-400nm frequency
31
What vision do humans have
RGB
32
What vision do bees have
UV + G + B
33
What vision do birds have
UV + R + G + B
34
Infrared vision
780nm-1mm wavelength
35
What are the two types of audition for humans
ITD (interaural time differences) and ILD (interaural level differences)
36
What is ITD
Interaural time difference
37
What does ITD use
Difference in time
38
When is ITD dominant
Lower frequencies (below 1000 Hz)
39
What is ILD
Interaural level difference
40
What does ILD use
differences in intensity
41
When is ILD dominant
Higher frequencies (above 100Hz)
42
What is the human hearing frequency range?
20Hz-20kHz
43
What is the purpose of having ILD and ITD
Locating where a sound is coming from
44
What is echolocation
Clicking sounds made to gather information about objects based on the echo of the clicks off of them
45
What information can be gathered through echolocation
size, location, shape, texture, and motion of the object
46
Is echolocation usually low or high frequency?
High frequency
47
How do dolphins use high frequency clicks
To echolocate
48
How else to dolphins communicate
Low frequency calls over long distances
49
What is directly responsible for detecting odors
The olfactory epithelium
50
Why do dogs have a better sense of smell than humans
Their epithelium is 15-20 times larger and has hundreds of millions of receptors
51
What are the three main purposes of olfaction?
Mating Homing Avoiding predators
52
How do garter snakes use olfaction
Mating
53
How do garter snakes use olfaction in mating
Collect air particles with their tongues, taste them, and pass them to their nasal cavity. Males follow chemical trails left by females, who mark one side of an object more than another to convey direction.
54
Who studied olfaction in homing
Minguez et al. (1997)
55
Describe the Minguez et al experiment
Moved young storm petrel chicks from their nesting sites and blocked their noses. No chick made it back with a blocked nose, but all chicks with an open nose found their way back.
56
Who studied olfaction in avoiding predators
Baretto (1999)
57
Describe Baretto's experiment
Showed that water voles avoid cages with odor of predators, but show no aversion to the novel control odor
58
What is the primary function of taste receptors
Alerting animals to avoid poison and seek critical nutrients
59
What are the 5 taste receptors in humans
Sweet Salty Bitter Sour Savory
60
What are the 5 taste receptors in dogs
Sweet Bitter Sour Savory Water
61
What are the 5 taste receptors in cats
Salty Bitter Sour Savory Water
62
What are the 7 taste receptors in rats
Sweet Salty Bitter Sour Savory Water Calcium
63
What is the somatosensory system
Network of neural structures in the brain and body that produce the perception of touch
64
What is the somatosensory cortex
Region of the brain which is responsible for processing touch sensory information from across the body
65
What is a somatosensory homunculus
Proportional representation of how much of the somatosensory cortex is used to process touch inputs from different parts of the body
66
What are the main regions of the body that the somatosensory cortex of a rabbit is dedicated to
Whiskers, face
67
What are the main regions of the body that the somatosensory cortex of a cat is dedicated to
Whiskers, paws
68
What are the main regions of the body that the somatosensory cortex of a monkey is dedicated to
Mouth, face, hands
69
What are the main regions of the body that the somatosensory cortex of a human is dedicated to
Mouth, face, fingers
70
Describe the sensory system of star-nosed moles
22 fingers or rays on nose, which contains touch, smell, and taste receptors
71
Describe the density of star-nosed moles raus
Densest touch receptor cells of any mammal.
72
How sensitive are the rays of star nosed moles in comparison to those on the human hand
6 times more sensitive
73
What other sense do star nosed moles rays have
Electro-sensing
74
Describe the star nosed mole's cortical proportions
52% of the cortex is devoted to the "fingers"
75
What are the two "Other" senses
Electroreception Sensitivity to magnetic fields
76
What is one animal that uses electroreception
Elephant-fish
77
How does electroreception work in elephant-fish
Electric fields are generated by the electric organ and sensed by sensitive pits called the fovea Conducting materials concentrate the fields and non conducting material spread the field, creating a gradient
78
What are two animals that use magnetic fields
Honeybees and homing pigeons
79
How do honeybees utilize magnetic fields
Magnetic fields in the atmosphere are used to recognize differences in location, altitude, and directionality
80
How do homing pigeons use magnetic fields
Earth's magnetic field is used to orient them.
81
What will happen if you place a magnet on the back of a homing pigeon and who discovered this
Loss of orientation under overcast conditions (Mora et al. 2004)
82
What shapes the perceptual systems of different animals
Different environments and needs
83
What can we use insights gained by studying the perceptual system of different animals for
To reason about the problem they were evolved to solve
84
What is the downside to enhanced senses and what does this tell us about the snimal
Enhanced senses come with an energy cost. Different animals adapt their sensory systems to best serve their needs.

Animal Minds (17 decks)

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