Animal Behavior Test 2

-Uniqueness of individuals (variability)-Heritability of much of the variability

-Species=can mate with each other.-Red Parrots (cichlid fish)- result of crossing 2 species- Gold severum (cichlasoma severum) and Red devil (cichlasoma libiatum) Gold severum are docile, red devils aren't. Severum= big, gold, flattened. Devils= like a hotdog. Offspring has inherited characteristics of both parents. Intermediate aggressive behavior.-Lovebirds (Fischer's lovebird & peach-faced lovebird) Put index cards in cage, they will tear them apart and make nest. Peach-faced tear and put it in feathers to carry, Fischer's carry in bill. Hybrids tear strips nicely, but are confused about what to do with strips. In the first year, never make a nest. In later seasons, they carry in their beak, but still engage in head-turning behavior. strips=intermediate F=long, DF=short.-Tree frogs- Cope's gray tree frog and pinewoods tree frog. Elements of both frogs in vocalizations of hybrid.-Blackcap warblers- hybrids within species of different populations with different characteristics. Different migration paths. Put hybrids in Emlen cone ink at bottom- put bird in put in planetarium that shows fall sky, make jumps in direction that migration would have started. Zugenruhe (migratory restlessness)- Hybrids head off in intermediate direction.

-1. Animal Fanciers (Darwin again!) (animal breeders)- artificial selection- can select which traits you want (pigeons).-2. Change in mean value of a trait over generations (how much brown feathers do they have?) (artificial selection) lots of variability- you can move traits around- corn used to be grass- enough variation to allow natural selection to work on anything.-3. Modern examples: A- Mouse activity levels- open field study- measure how active a mouse is. Count every time animal moves across a line. You can artificially select for this. B- Guppie color: orange color area on male. C- Mouse nest building: cotton-building example from text book *Know figure from text-chap 1?

-1. Inbred strains: Taking from same litter (share 50% of genes)- mate them, offspring share even more- keep going- 20-25 generations, you create genetically identical individuals. You can now alter environments-measure effects.-2. Examples: -A. mouse activity levels. -B. Mouse climbing. Inbreeding depression is a problem- start getting sicker, may die- not usual that you can get to the point of inbred strain.

-You can put genes from one into another- knockout: you can render certain genes ineffective. Ex: male and female mice- put in same area, inspect each other- spend a lot of time sniffing each other. Measure olfactory investigation time- gene known as oxytocin gene people have looked at and knocked out.-Oxytocin and affiliation- take female out, put new one in, male/female investigate each other- this goes on with each new female. If you put back in same female, he isn't interested- investigation time decreases. Take out oxytocin gene- he is interested again- has something to do with investigation of females. -1. A non-functional mutant version of Oxt +/+ gene (oxt -/-) is constructed.-2. The oxt -/- gene delivered via stem cells to mice derived from those stem cells.-3. oxt -/- males fail to show decline in olfactory investigation times across trials. -Microtus- species of monogamous vole. (one species= microtus ochrogaster) (TB example) Mess with oxytocin gene in them and unmonogamous species (microtus montanus) take oxytocin gene from monogamous voles and put it in non-monogamous vole- become monogamous.

-Vt=Vg+Ve+Vi-Vt= Total variability in a trait-Vg= Variability due to genes-Ve= Variability due to environment-Vi= Variability due to interaction between genes and environment.-If Vi = Vg x Ve and Ve = 0 (eliminate all environmental variability), then Vt = Vg (strain differences) genetic variation resulted in differences.-Or if Vg = 0 (inbred strain) then Vt = Ve (variability within a strain) environmental variation resulted in differences.

-A. Neuroethology emerged from a blending of two scientific traditions: neurobiology and ethology.-B. Some early, key concepts: umwelt: The unique perceptual world of each species (some depend more on smell, some on sight, etc.) some have sensory abilities that we almost can't imagine (dogs can hear much higher frequencies than we can) some animals see color very differently, some can sense magnetic fields. FAP: Fixed action pattern (MAP?) Species-specific behavior- once it started, you couldn't stop them. Tried to figure out neurological underpinnings. Simple behaviors don't require a lot of learning. -C. Sign stimuli- stimulus that causes the fixed action pattern. Ex: Greylag goose jostle nest a little bit- egg pops out the way they get it back is FAP- reach out with head, scoop around egg and pull it back in. If you pull the egg away, they continue to pull back then notice the egg isn't there. Also move back and forth to roll with movements of egg. Side-to-side movements disappear when egg disappears. *Subtle differences in FAP between one animal to the next- maybe we should call them modal action patterns (MAP)? FAP from German "inherited movement coordination" Geese go for the big egg every time (even if egg is gigantic and clearly not theirs. Super-normal stimulus. (Different stimulus that predicts FAP better) Variation to play with in FAP.

-A. Lesion/ablation: Kill/remove neurons in part of nervous system suspected to be important and look to see if behavior changes. Flies taste with feet. If they taste a nutrient they need, drop their proboscis and suck it up. Dethier suspected the recurrent nerve was important to end feeding (cessation of feeding). Severed recurrent nerve and allowed them to feed. Feeding didn't stop.-B. Electrical Recording: Sea slugs engage in a ventral/dorsal flection- sway back and forth- moves them through water toward and away from stimulus. Dorsal flexion neurons and ventral flection neurons stimulate behavior. Put recording electrodes in them to measure neuron activity.-C. Electrical stimulation: European toad- Bufo bufo- sit and wait predators- stick tongue out- grab insect- gulp it down. Can stimulate each bit of behavior by giving electrical stimulation. (Turning, snapping, and gulping).-D. Chemical techniques: The parasitoid wasp hunts cockroaches for food for its larvae. The cockroach is stung first in the prothoracic ganglia and then again in ventral side of the head. The cockroach grooms for 30 minutes and enters a long-lasting lethargy, but is not paralyzed. (lay eggs in cockroach so babies can eat it).

-As they claw through tunnels, they use star nose to touch and find food. Can put snout in water, blow out a bubble, suck it back in smelling to see if there is anything of interest there. Detects food with star appendages- finds it- uses appendages directly above mouth to eat it- they feel with greatest sensitivity/acuity. Analogous to our visual system. Peripherals= star appendages- when we focus= their mouth appendages. Fetus- nose opening looks like eyes. Appendages become more obvious later in development. Evolution: Fetus/star nose similar to coast mole- perhaps star-nose evolved from them.-Cortical Magnification: How much cortex dedicated to incoming sensory information- Humans: more in lips, hands, feet, genitals. Star-nose moles: very much in feelers in star and nails. Each feeler isn't as sensitive- some more important than others.-Cortical mapping: Disproportionate representation of sensitivity of certain areas (i.e., different appendages of star-nose mole).

-After toads catch food and gulp it, they always wipe their face. They have a turning behavior before eating- if they see a large predator, they turn and duck.-A. What is the role of the visual system in the predatory strike? (Tinbergen-mechanism)- Visual system better than ours at combining visual inputs over time- they can respond to light over periods of time- they can absorb it- when it's dark, they can see. Put toad on disc that spins underneath him, put food on it at whatever speed, see what kinds of stimuli will cause him to respond. Behavioral responses: worm stimulus (longer than it is tall): As stimuli gets longer, the longer it gets, the more frequently frog turns, until stimulus gets too big. Antiworm stimulus (taller than it is long): As it gets taller, turning behavior gets less frequent. (Toads don't eat things shaped like this). Square stimulus: As it gets bigger, more frequent turns until it gets too large, it will be interpreted as a threat and frog will turn away.-Electrical recording: Stick electrode in part of brain optic tectum- like our visual system. Record those areas when toad is making turn-head responses. R2 cell area: Doesn't look like behavior, neither do R3 or R4 cells. T5(1) don't- T5(2) cells look a lot like behavior. Because their patterns of activity correspond in a similar way to behavior, they are probably involved in behavior. If you ablate it, radically change behavior.

-Which cues are used for escape? Pair of organs at tail of cockroach called cerci (singular=cercus). Took glue, put a dollop on each cerci, eliminating function. Cockroaches without glue escaped most of the time. With glue, cockroaches got caught a lot. Cerci important in escape response. Maybe they're responding to changing wind patterns- tossed gentle accelerations at them- little puff of air, lots of action potentials. Action potentials move down an axon more rapidly the bigger in diameter the axon is. The axons that receive info from the cerci are really big. Giant interneurons- the same 7 can be located in every single cockroach (7 on each side of body).-On each segment of cerci, there are hairs that are the wind-sensors (filiform hairs). Depending on how breeze hits hairs, information about direction of attack is conveyed. Action potential only needs to arrive at the ganglia at top of legs. Never has to get up to the brain. Tell cockroach legs you're under attack and it's coming from this direction.

-Frank A. Beach (1911-1988)- created field of behavioral endocrinology- Journal: hormones and behavior- urinary postures of domestic dogs- part of what the male dog is doing is putting his scent out stronger- this is under hormonal control- remove testes, female posture happened. Early female given testosterone, male stance developed.

-A. Domestic animals: very early on found out that castration made male cows more docile.-B. Human singers: castrati- human males were castrated for the changes it produces in their voices. Changes to larnyx with puberty don't happen. The end parts of long bones and joints/limbs don't fuse and grow properly- legs and arms longer, ribs wider (can produce powerful notes). May have been 4,000 boys castrated annually. Removal of androgens (testosterone is best known) changes vocal apparatus, the way the bones form, etc.

-First ever behavioral endocrinology study. Used roosters as his subjects. Domestic roosters have a comb (on its head) and wattles (under its beak). Methods: Three "groups" of roosters (n=2) *Group 1: castration *Group 2: castration + reimplantation of testis (sever all connections- put only one testicle back) wasn't put back in same spot it came from *Group 3: castration + transplantation of testis (put the one testicle in the other bird (traded testicles)-also in a different from original spot).-Results: reimplanted or transplanted testes induced: appearance (combs, wattles, size) (source was removed before puberty) In group with removed testes, combs and wattles nothing like normal adult male- group 2 and 3 normal looking combs and wattles. Group 1 smaller size.-Vocalization: Group 1 (capons=castrated birds with no reimplantation or transplantation) didn't sound like typical vocalizations of rooster.-Aggression: Capons were much less aggressive than roosters with reimplanted or transplanted testis.-Mating: Group 1 didn't want to, 2 and 3 did. (even though 2 and 3 couldn't deliver sperm- the hormones are still there.-Conclusions: The testes are transplantable organs- they established new connections with circulatory system. Transplanted testes can be functional (at producing hormones)- No specific nerves directed testicular function- Blood-borne secretions caused the results.

-Organic chemical messengers produced and released by specialized glands called endocrine glands. Hormones are released into the blood-stream where they may act on target organs (or tissues) at some distance from their origin. As testis secrete hormones, they are moderated by the brain- increase/decrease production- feedback loops.-Aggression in mice: high pre-castration, low post-castration, and moderate with replacement of testosterone.-3 groups guniea pigs high sex drive, medium, and low. How long before he contacted female, tried to mount her, and when and how often mated. Variability in sex drive. Before castration, levels are stable, post-castration, all groups sex drives decrease, after testosterone therapy, reinstatement of sex drive. Every level of sexual activity stayed in the same place (high, med, and low sex drives).