Environmental Basis of Behaviour Flashcards
What medical conditions does a low birthweight and poor early growth predict in adults?
Coronary heat disease
Non-insulin dependent diabetes
Blood pressure issues
Obesity
Stroke
Schizophrenia
Asthma
What is the foetal origin hypothesis?
Foetal gene expression can be affected by nutrient availability and hormones expressed
Nutrient availability can affect the hormones that are expressed and act on the foetus
These can cause long term changes in the body structure, physiology and the metabolism of the foetus
These then have consequences for adulthood health
What did the birth season experiment in rural Gambians show?
Babies born during rainy season struggle to fight off diseases are more susceptible to diseases than those born in the harvest season
What experiment was carried out on mice to test if hormonal environment effects behaviour?
Took male pups out of utero and castrated them and injected them with equal levels of testosterone and placed back in the uterus
Oestradiol is very high in female mice
Males near their sisters in utero have higher amounts of oestradial than their brothers not near their sisters
Males between brothers are more aggressive than males between sisters
Did same experiment on female mice - they had larger territories and were more aggressive when placed next to their brothers in utero
What is development of behaviour due to?
Interaction between the genotype and the environment
Why are only some behaviour developments flexible?
Maintaining behaviour flexibility is costly so only worth having if it is needed
