Instinctual Behaviour Flashcards
4 Characteristics of Instinctual behaviour?
1) Inherited “innate”
2) Not learned (doesn’t require practise/experience)
3) released by external cues (sign stimulus)
4) dependent on internal drive state.
Explain the relationship between Sign Stimulus and Fixed Action Potential?
Sign stimulus (external sensory cue –> fish seeing red) triggers Fixed Action Potential
FAP (instinctual behaviour –> attacking other fish)
What is an internal drive state?
Motivations for a behaviour to be released/activated.
Conserves Energy
–> fish to attack other males for reproduction/survival
Define Homeostasis
The ability of an organism to maintain a stable existence even as the environment changes.
What is an internal drive?
Area in hypothalamus composed of nuclei (clusters of neurons) that control a physiological function:
catatonic need (hunger), body fluid osmolarity (thirst), thermoreg
What does the VTA, Ventral Tegmental Area do?
Internal integration determines what behaviours will be most rewarding and which to prioritise
Evidences for hypothalamic nucleus controlling internal drives (3)
1) brain damage to specific areas (over/under manifestation of specific behaviours)
2) More neuron AP happen in specific nuclei during behaviour
3)experimentally exciting/inhibiting neurons in specific nuclei (whether/not animals manifest behaviour)
How would you prove a behaviour may be controlled by a nucleus in the hypothalamus (2 peices of evidence)
- Damage/remove a specific nucleus in hypothalamus and observe whether behaviour is altered/eliminated.
- Stimulate nucleus using electrodes and see if behaviour is triggered/not.
A snail starts chewing when it tastes a specific chemical found in veg, but not when stomach is full, is this a fixed action pattern?
No because a fixed action pattern is one that is innate and once triggered continue to completion regardless of internal state (being full). As stops chewing once hunger is satiated, response is more reflexive than fixed.
