Spacial Cognition (navigation behavior) Flashcards
(21 cards)
1
Q
are movements typically complex or simple mechanisms
A
- simple
- even complex movements arise when simple mechanisms navigate a complex environment
2
Q
kinesis
A
- control of the rate of movement
3
Q
orthokinesis
A
- variable rate of movement
4
Q
klinokinesis
A
- variable rate of turning
5
Q
describe the movement of E.coli
A
- run and rumble behavior
- run to get away
- tumble to stay in similar area
- kinesis is probabilistic - won’t necessarily move into a better place
6
Q
what are taxis behaviors
A
- uses sensory signals to give info about quality of a location
- Have eye spots with photoreceptors that can release an inhibitory chemical to stop the hairs on that side from beating so it turns towards that side
- Light is proxy for heat – they can find warm water to stay alive
phototaxis
7
Q
what are some examples of types of taxis
A
- phototaxis - light stimulus
- menotaxis - moon stimulus
- chemotaxis - chemical stimulus
8
Q
migration
A
- migrating species have instinctive direction
- no one individual monarch completes the whole flight, so no learning is involved
- instinctively go to places where they know there will be food
9
Q
monarch migration
A
- directional mechanism is a time-compensated sun compass
- sun moves so need to know what time it is
- circadian clock is driven by light sensitive cells in the antennae
- clock calibrated by dawn and dusk
- test monarchs in a clock-shifted group traveled in a different direction
10
Q
hatching turtle migration
A
- use magnetic field to direct them
11
Q
homing
A
- central clave forages are like home for animals
- homing pigeon is really good at central place foraging
- You can do homing without actually knowing where you are
- Scientists moves ants 5m away in the dark with no social or olefactory stimulus
- Ant takes path back as if it hasn’t been moved (shows that ant is navigating as it goes out)
- Same if you lengthen or shorten their legs – so we know they count steps
- The animals do trig so they can add up their rout and find the best way home
12
Q
homing in wasps
A
- Wasp flew around and recognized that the environment changed’
- Same as behavior from the workshop
- Visual memory helps make up for issues in path integration
13
Q
route learning
A
- many animals show habitual routes through the world
- path integration is used at first
- visual learning guided by PI
- using consistent paths makes learning easier
- better to have a reliable route even if it isn’t the most direct
14
Q
how are small brain navigators limited?
A
- big brained animals can make maps in much more complex ways than small brain animals can
15
Q
what part of the brain is the site of spatial knowledge?
A
- the hippocampus
16
Q
what is the evidence for the hippocampus being responsible for spatial knowledge
A
- both mice and birds with better spacial ability and homing range have larger hippocampuses
- ablation of hippocampus in birds knocked out their ability to retrieve food
17
Q
plasticity in the hippocampus
A
18
Q
A
18
Q
describe the role of place cells in the hippocampus
A
- Small circles represent a landmark
- If you take the animal out of the arena and put them back in, the same cells fire
- Firing of the cell is relative to the position of the significant landmarks – its more tied to things that the animal learns about the environment than their orientation in the world
- Cells fire in the same location, even in the dark when the animal can’t see the landmarks
19
Q
how are inputs sent to place cells
A
- get inputs from many parts of the brain via the entorhinal cortex
- grid cells fire at different scales to measure distances in whatever direction you’re traveling
20
Q
place cells in humans
A
- single unit recordings from subjects with chronic electrodes
- single cells in hippocampus show place fields
