What’s the general definition for behavioural neuroscience?
- Relate behaviour to the brain through application of biological principles
- Should be noted that brain and behaviour are a two-way street
How may our understanding of behaviour change over time?
- It changes as technology changes
- Ex. thinking wasn’t necessarily considered a behaviour until neuroimaging techniques were developed
What’s important to remember about models used in behavioural neuroscience?
- Essentially all models are wrong but some can be useful
Who was Niko Tinbergen?
- Won the Nobel Prize in 1973 for “discoveries concerning organization and elicitation of individual and social behaviour patterns
- Came up with his causes for behaviour
How are Tinbergen’s causes for behaviour organized?
Proximate causes
1. Causation (mechanism)
2. Ontogeny (development)
Ultimate
3. Evolution (phylogeny)
4. Function (adaptation)
What are proximate causes typically known for?
They are typically designated as the cause. Known for:
- Short time scales
- Direct mechanisms
What’s considered the major internal factor that influences animal behaviour in a particular manner?
- The nervous system is considered the major internal factor
- Considered to have a direct effect on how you interact with your environment
- Additionally, structure determines function
How does causation explain behaviour?
- Proximate explanations are usually dealt with on the physiological level
- The nervous system controls the acquisition of info and produces a response (behaviour)
How can causation (mechanism) explain varying levels of aggression in animals?
- Some people may be more aggressive because they have higher levels of testosterone
How may development (ontogeny) contribute to varying levels of aggression in people?
- Depending on the levels of aggression people observe as children may determine the level of aggressive behaviours they express as adults due to modeling behaviour
How does the evolution (phylogeny) cause explain behaviour?
- An ultimate cause
- A phylogenetic explanation is an account of the evolutionary relationships by which the behaviour has been formed out of some pre-existing organization
How may aggression be explained by evolution?
- Similar behaviours observed in close relatives
How may function (adaptation) be used to help explain behaviour?
- Adaptive significance - the value of behaviour must have ultimately entailed reproductive consequences
- This type of causation occurs on a generational time scale
How may function be used to explain the role of aggressive behaviour in animals?
- Some individuals are more aggressive because aggressiveness has allowed those animals to survive and reproduce
- i.e., provides a competitive edge
- A lot of energy is devoted to eventually reproducing
Out of all the four causes of behaviour, which one is correct?
- All are correct, just incomplete on their own
- A complete understanding of a given behaviour would require all the explanations
- Each type of explanation doesn’t preclude or oppose another type of explanation
What cause of behaviour technically precludes all the other causes?
- Evolution since it precludes everything else
- Often the least discussed
What may be considered another cause of behaviour not found within Niko’s model?
- Pathology, when a designated feature/structure doesn’t operate correctly within the typical context
- How we develop animal models from these pathological discoveries
What’s ethology?
- Emphasis on the behaviour of animals in their natural environment (i.e., compared to a lab)
What does the term ‘umwelt’ refer to?
- Means “self-centred world”
- How an animal is built will contribute to how it moves through the world
- Understanding the natural behaviours of animals guides us in our choice of model species in neurosciences
Standard housing vs. Enriched housing?
- Standard - Receive bedding, food, and water. One rat per cage
- Enriched - 6-8 animals, food, water, bedding , and toys
Why is it important to provide enriched housing for rats?
- Much better for their brain development and will increase plasticity
- Also leads to better data
- Rats are easier to work with
- Ethologists approve of the enriched housing much more than the shoebox approach, think it’s a lot more ethical
What’s a Fixed Action Pattern (FAP)?
- An instinctive behavioural sequence
- Relatively invariant
- Runs to completion each time
- Typically include behaviours that are essential to survival (ex. Lorenz and Tinburgen retrieval behaviour in the Guelag goose)
How are FAPs released?
- Triggered by external stimuli (sign stimuli) which induce a behaviour
- Can be a single or small group of stimuli (ex. a colour, shape, noise)
What’s a releaser?
- A stimulus that is produced by the same species
- Can trigger an animal to do a FAP
