Exam I Notes PDF

- Behavioral Observation Methods - Instantaneous vs continuous - Inst = @ 1 pt in time, Cont = watch entire time/movie - Focal vs Scan - Focal = 1 spec subject, scan = scanning total gr - Ex. inst and focal (flamingos) - Ethogra...

- Behavioral Observation Methods - Instantaneous vs continuous - Inst = @ 1 pt in time, Cont = watch entire time/movie - Focal vs Scan - Focal = 1 spec subject, scan = scanning total gr - Ex. inst and focal (flamingos) - Ethogram: peck (p) = forward jab w bill, bill fencing (bf) = side-to-side motion w jabbing, feeding (f)= eating - Per 10 seconds → more consistent w practice, more observers, and better descriptive etho - Ex. cont and focal - Watch elk the entire time, write down time stamp of each new action - Some actions can be hard to differentiate and need spec etho descriptions - Interobserver reliability = % same actions (want \> 50%) - States vs events - States = behav of long duration - Rest, movement, foraging, playing - Events = short duration - Touching, bite/hitting - Ultimate and Proximate Behav - Ultimate = why - Survival value, evol history (phylogeny), ancestry - Prox = how - genes/horm/nerves, sensory organs, body mechs - Consequences of both = changed gene pool of next gen, pop dynamics - ?s abt behav - Prox - Otogeny (dev) = how does it dev in the indiv - - - - Mechanism = how does it work - - - - Phylogeny = how did behav arise in species - - - - Ult - Function = why is it done - - - - Complete analysis of behav req dif/mult perspectives - Behav results from interact of anis and env - - Monogamy (90% avians, 3% mammals) - Social - - - - Sexual - - - - - - History of Ani Behav Study - Fathers of ani behav - von Frisch, Lorenz, Tinbergen (based on Aristotle, H. Spencer, and Darwin) - Lorenz and Tinbergen = invented ethology (1937) - - - - - - - - - - 2 Maj approaches - Ethology (europe) - Ethology = how behav adapted to env/evol of behav - - - - - - - Comparative psych (US) (proximate/how) - Fathers = Pavlov, B.F. Skinner, Thorndike (Jogn Watson = "blank slate") - - - - Nature v nurture - - - - Behav ecology - W.D. Hamiltn's "inclusive fitness" = ind acts to max own and relative's survival/repro - Made sterile castes explainable - E.O. Wilson's sociobiology = study of bio/evol basis of all social behav and social sys - Much controversy, esp over human implications - Behav ecol focuses on orgs interacting in nat env, has strong theoretical basis - Ex. optimal foraging theory takes into account encounter rate, handling time, and E content - Today → ethology, comp psych, and sociobio all interact - Both env and inheritance regarded as imp - 3 Maj methods of study (all needed) - Descriptive = ethogram, obs and record, latency/freq/duration - Comparative = ecology, comp variations b/w species, sociobio - Experimental = lab/field tests, control and variab;e - Tinbergen (father of exp ethology) → Animal Behavior: Causation, Dev, Evol hist, Function and survival rate - Why study ani behav? - Interface of physio/ecol/evol, indication of env degradation, econ vale (incr profits), ani welfare, understanding human social problems (evol psychol), wildlife conserv - Steps - Obs and describe actions (ethograms) - State ?s - Create hypoth (broad) - Make a pred (if... then) - Test pred and collect data - Draw conclusions (correlation vs causation) - Evolution and Genetics - Charles Darwin - On HMS Beagle voyage around world, born same day as Abe Lincoln - Maj concepts of nat selection - Orgs over-reprod but have env limits, individuals vary, some surv longer bc of their var, nat selected vars = inherited - Dif repro of genes/ind, not linear but branched - A process w no goal - Nat select - Indirect @ gene lvl (direct @ pheno) - Env involved in dev of pheno - Env = @ 3 lvls - Gen (dev) = structure → structural (stimuli) = behav → behavioral (selection) = repro of genes - Vp = Vg + Ve + Vge → p = pheno, ge = interact b/w genes and env - Adaptation vs adaptive trait - Adapt = gen-based and chosen by selection - Adapt traits = incr surv/repro but may not be an adaptation - May be indir sel for w/ the actual adaptation, accidental byprod → wasn't cause of adaptation, wasn't selected for - - Reprod selfishness - Comp among individuals can be: - Dir = interaction b/w ind is the selection (phys fighting) - Indir = each ind deals w select independently (taking a resource from another ind) - Determining adaptive val of behav - Cost-benefit analysis - Behav decr repro/\# alleles in next gen → COST - Behav incr repro success/fitness = BENEFIT - - - - Comparative - Divergent species = closely related but dif behav in dif env (diverged apart from each other) - - Convergent species = dif species in similar env have sim adaptive behavs - - Genes vs env importance - Behav caused by both env and genes, not just 1 → behav = mostly det by many genes - Polygenic inheritance (ex. Skin color) = opp of Pleiotropy (1 gene influences mult traits) - Links b/w gen and behav - Twin studies and drosophila genetics - Hybridization = mate 2 ind w dif behavs and obs offspring behav - Ex. black-masked lovebird x peach-faces lovebird - Voles = monogamous - Extra 460 nucleotides in middle of promoter for OXYT and AVP receptor genes - - Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) gene - On chr \#11, protein/"fertilizer" in brain for neural growth - Link to mem and depression in humans → everyone has 2 copies of Val-Val but depressed = Met-Met, in b/w = Met-Val - Kallman Syndrome (pleiotropy, males = more affected) - Small gonads, sexually indif, no sense of smell - - - Artificial selection = changing freq of trait in a pop by choosing breeders - Speed of selection shows \# of genes involved in behav - - Gene alteration - Transgenics = inserting.transferring a gene from 1 species to another - - Knockout = spec gene inact by inserting a nonsense seq/changing promoter region - - 3 maj types of nat select - Stabilizing \[→ ←\], directional \[→ or ←\], and disruptive \[↓\] - Kinship and selection - Kin (nat.) selection/indir fitness: enhance of repro of inds other than self will be expected if they carry your genes - Leads to Inclusive fitness: sum of repro success of self and kin → dir and indir fitness - Measurement of heritability - The fraction of all var caused by gen difs - H\^2 = Vg/Vp → Vp = Vg + Ve → h = Vg/(Vg+Ve), range b/w 0 and 1 - - - - - - - Nervous Sys - Basic review - Sensory, motor, and interneurons - Polarized = high \[K+\] in cell → damaged myelin sheath = mult sclerosis, dementia - Escape response = electrical synapses - ASPM gene (abnormal spindle-like microcephaly-associated protein) - Mutation = microcephaly - ASPM regulates \# times neural stem cells divide → \# neurons in adult brain - Has repeats of isoleucine and glutamine (75 letters long) - \*\*Evolution = dif of degree, not kind - Stimulus filtering and processing - subliminal effects/messages → Baseball player's rxn time \~0.4125 sec - Ex. noctrid moths detect bat's ultrasonic emissions - - Optical illusions in humans - Primates have "face detector" cells - Neural basis of bird song - Sensory and motor stages like in humans - Male learns song during critical period by listening to other birds - - - - - Fernando Nottebohm - Song centers on L side of brain are dom to R side - Canary brains = sexually dimorphic (HVC = 4x larger in males) - - - Simon LeVay - Explored proximate causes of sexual pref/orient - Focused on particular nuclei (distinct aggregates of nerve cells) in anterior hypothal - - Ray Blanchard (1990s) - Gay men = more likely to have older brothers (but not sisters) than straight men/lesbians - - \~1 in 7 gays can attribute orient to fraternal birth order - Maternal immune rxn = rxn to genes expressed on Y chr of sons, may stop wiring of brain part that causes gay behav - Sexual dimorphism in humans - Sex difs in brain's serotonin sys (women regulate less than men) may explain why depression/anxiety = more common in women - Amygdala (warning bell, recog fear on another person's face) = may be more active in women - Horm in early dev can change brain - Not strictly dimorphic sex, can't be categorized as "male"/"female" brain - - Neurotransmitters - NTs diffuse across synaptic cleft - Pre-syn cell stores NTs in vesicles in cytopl - Action pot triggers vesicles to fuse w membr and release NTs into cleft - NTs bind w specific R prots on post-synaptic cell membr - \[Ca+\] channel opens thru meme and \[Na+\] ions flow in - Post-syn cell responds to type of NT, \[NT\] in synapse, type of R in membr, etc. - - Excitatory and inhib signals compete for contr of neuron's membr = summation - Integration/neuromodulation = keeps from extremes - Neuromodulators are signaling molecules that incr or decr effects of NTs, affect amnt of NTs released, and/or \# Rs in post-syn cell - - - NT removal from cleft - Removal must be prompt or synapse will accumulate inhib/excite substances which can be lethal - - Imp NTs - Acetylcholine (ACh) - - - - - Nitric Oxide (NO) - - - Monoamines (from AA precursors) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - AA NTs - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - NTs and imprinting learning - GABA and Glu incr after imprinting so NTs appear to play a role - GABA inhib visual learning and other stim so doesn't imprint on other things - Memory = changes in brain - Neural plasticity = structural changes in brain, esp in \# and chem strength of synapses b/w neurons - Dendritic spines = small protuberances on a dendrite that receive synaptic inputs = incr synapses \# - Incr \# dendritic spines when learning but only lasts short time - Peptides = can act as NT, neuromod, or horm - Endorphins (endogenous morphines) = neuromods - Encephalin = blocks pain, mating in some ani, placebo effect - Substance P = prod pain - Neurotensin = appetite mod - Oxytocin = childbirth, maternal behav, milk release, incr altruism toward team and aggro toward others - - - Hormones and Behav - Intrauterine position phenomenon (IUP) (litter bearing species) - "Womb-mates" horm travel thru amniotic fluid or uterine blood vessels and affect nearby littermates - 1M female = has one male next to her in utero - 2M females = exposed to T from 2 brothers - - 2M males - - Anogenital distance (AGD) = marker for uterine position - - History of endocrinology - Domesticating ani - Castration affects behav and incr taste - Castrati = castrated male singers to keep soprano voice, Eunuchs = guard harems bc castrated - Berthold = 1st exp → found testes = transplantable and funct norm after nerves severed - Proposed that a secretory, blood-borne prod was responsible - Definitions - Hormone = substance secreted in 1 part of body that causes changes in other parts; secreted by endocrine glands/neurons - Endocrine glands = secrete into spaces b/w cells and don't have ducts like exocrine glands - Types of horm - Peptide = 2nd messenger involved (cAMP, etc) → most horm in humans = peptide - - - Steroid = slower acting than pep horm bc doesn't need 2nd messenger - - - - Endocrine sys - Vertebrates - Hypothal = pituitary sys (master gland) - Endocrine glands throughout body → John Brinkley (1917) = goat testicle grafts - Hypothal - Sends releasing factors to ant pit (adenohypophysis) via capillaries/blood - Causes ant pit to release the horm it makes/stores - - Pulsatile release of horm - - Releases = reg by feedback loops - - Post pit (neurohypophysis) connected by neurons - Horm made by hypothal neurons and stored in post pit (not made here); neurosecretory cells → faster response - - Endocrine glands → Both sexes make andro/estrogens and progestins - Estrus cycle - Horm result in ovulation and affect NS to incr likelihood of mating - Female behavioral estrus - Seek out males, initiate copulation, wants to be near males, more attractive to males than anestrus females, only females in estrus allow mating to occur - \*\*estrus = noun (ex. In estrus) → estrous = adj (ex. Human females have hidden estrous cycles) - Clear vs hidden estrus cycles - Clear = phys attributes change (ex. Mares raise tail, some monkeys have v red butts) - Hidden = no change in phys/behav (ex. humans) - Stages of estrus - Vaginal - - - - - Ovulation - - Social and env effects - - - - - - Organizational and activational effects - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Endocrine disruptors (ex. BPAs, PCBs, pesticides) - Endo disrupt compounds (EDCs) = synth composition that can interfere w prod, release, transport, metabolism, binding, action, and elimination of horm - Mimics actions of nat horm in ani - 2 maj classes w organizational and/or activational effects - Env estrogens/xenoestrogens - Antiandrogens - - Human effects - DES = repro tract deform, cancers - PCBs = neurological probs, lowers IQ - Lower sperm counts, higher hypospadias (urethra opening inside shaft), higher breast/prostate cancer rates