Deck 4: The Neural Basis of Behavior

Question 1

Stimulus filtering is an adaptation in the star-nosed mole because

A) this property of its nervous system helps the mole population secure the energy base on which the species depends.
B) individuals vary hereditarily in the way in which the mole's cerebral cortex analyzes sensory inputs from the animal's nose.
C) individuals that ignore some categories of potential sensory inputs forage on worms more effectively than they would otherwise.
D) some star-nosed moles leave more copies of their genes to the next generation than others.

Answer 1

C

Question 2

Tinbergen found that when young herring gull chicks are exposed to a painted stick with a red dot on the end, they give a pecking response. The chick's pecking response is an example of

A) code breaking, where a fixed action pattern is exploited by another species.
B) an instinctual response that is learned by watching other gulls get food from their parents.
C) an adaptation that has likely evolved in response to low food availability in the environment.
D) an innate behavior, which does not require previous experience with the cue to elicit the behavioral response.

Answer 2

D

Question 3

Refer to the figure.
Which sound frequency (kHz) are the male flies most sensitive to?

A) 2
B) 5
C) 10
D) 20

Answer 3

C

Question 4

Refer to the figure.
The reaction of the female fly to sounds of _______ kHz best illustrates the concept of stimulus filtering.

A) 2
B) 5
C) 10
D) 20

Question 5

Refer to the figure.
If the data collected for the graph were not gathered simply to describe the hearing abilities of the fly, then (for the biologists who did the research) the graph constitutes a

A) hypothesis on why the fly species has been able to survive to the present.
B) test of a prediction on fly hearing ability, based on the kind of sound frequencies produced by crickets.
C) check on the prediction that crickets should have evolved the ability to avoid their fly parasites.
D) test of the hypothesis that fly hearing abilities are designed to help the species maintain a stable or growing population.

Question 6

Refer to the figure.
Crickets can most easily hear sound frequencies when the intensity threshold is low. When crickets hear a low frequency sound, they turn toward the source of the sound. When they hear a high-frequency sound, they turn away. The "intensity threshold" on the graph refers to the

A) loudest sound of a given sound frequency that a cricket can hear.
B) softest sound of a given sound frequency that a cricket can hear.
C) most intense response given by a cricket to a given sound frequency.
D) least intense response given by a cricket to a given sound frequency.

Question 7

Refer to the figure.
Based on the information in the graph, what would you predict is the sound frequency (kHz) of ultrasonic bat calls?

A) 3-kHz, because the intensity threshold is at its highest point and it is a low-frequency.
B) 5-kHz, because the intensity threshold is at its lowest point and it is a low-frequency.
C) 40-kHz, because there is a dip in the intensity threshold and it is a high-frequency.
D) 100-kHz, because the intensity threshold is high, and it is the highest frequency recorded.

Question 8

Refer to the figure.
Based on the information in the graph, what would you predict is the sound frequency (kHz) of male cricket calls?

A) 3-kHz, because the intensity threshold is at its highest point and it is a low-frequency.
B) 5-kHz, because the intensity threshold is at its lowest point and it is a low-frequency.
C) 40-kHz, because there is a dip in the intensity threshold and it is a high-frequency.
D) 100-kHz, because the intensity threshold is high, and it is the highest frequency recorded.

Question 9

Why is the change in sensitivity of female midshipman fish to the "songs" produced by males of their species a proximate example of stimulus filtering?

A) In the seasons when female midshipman fish lack a sensitivity to high frequency elements, they cannot easily detect the sounds that they are able to hear in the summer breeding season.
B) These changes in sensitivity are linked to the genetically determined innate releasing mechanisms of the fish.
C) The changes in sensitivity to high frequency sounds occur when it is adaptive for females to hear the songs of males eager to spawn with females.
D) The greater sensitivity to high frequency sounds enables females to hear sounds that require a different proximate mechanism than the mechanism that enables females to hear lower frequency sound.

Question 10

Mike May studied the relationship between cricket behavior and the ultrasonic cries of bats. Which statement constitutes a hypothesis?

A) He noticed that the hindwing farther from the source of the ultrasound didn't make a stroke as deep as the other hindwing of the insect.
B) He found that with every burst of ultrasound, the wings of the cricket seemed to stop.
C) He asked himself, was this symbiosis another mechanism that enabled the cricket to turn away from the ultrasound produced by a bat?
D) He proposed that if the wing farther from the ultrasound did not make a full stroke, it should produce less thrust-inducing a turn toward that side.

Question 11

Mike May studied the relationship between cricket behavior and the ultrasonic cries of bats. Which statement constitutes a prediction?

A) He noticed that the hindwing farther from the source of the ultrasound didn't make a stroke as deep as the other hindwing of the insect.
B) He found that with every burst of ultrasound, the wings of the cricket seemed to stop.
C) He asked himself, was this symbiosis another mechanism that enabled the cricket to turn away from the ultrasound produced by a bat?
D) He proposed that if the wing farther from the ultrasound did not make a full stroke, it should produce less thrust-inducing a turn toward that side.

Question 12

When int-1, the interneurons located on each side of a cricket's body, are experimentally inactivated, the flying cricket does not alter its body orientation in response to ultrasonic stimulation. This finding

A) supports the hypothesis that int-1 is part of the neural circuit that responds to a bat's ultrasound.
B) suggests that the ear receptors located on the cricket's forelegs are less important for detecting ultrasonic calls than the neurons in the central nervous system.
C) caused researchers to reject the hypothesis that because these sensory and processing systems are costly, they will be lost in species that no longer need them.
D) supports the prediction that the flight path of a cricket is controlled by the position of the hindwing.

Question 13

A simple network of three clusters of neurons in the plainfin midshipman's hindbrain and spinal cord generate the signals that control the muscle contractions for humming. This is an example of

A) a stimulus filter.
B) signal patterning.
C) a central pattern generator.
D) cortical magnification.

Question 14

Refer to the figure.
In this experiment, monarch butterflies tethered in a flight cage received three treatments impacting the angle of polarized light reaching them from the sky: no filter (top), a vertical filter that did not interfere with the pattern of polarized light (middle), and a horizontal filter that shifted the angle of polarized light (bottom). Based on the data, what hypothesis does this support?

Question 15

Refer to the figure.
How would you alter this experiment to test the hypothesis that butterflies rely on UV light to orient correctly while migrating?

Question 16

Refer to the figure.
How would you alter this experiment to test the hypothesis that butterfly's light-sensitive clock mechanism is located in their antennae?

Question 17

Why would some bird chicks, such as those from estrildid finch species, have elaborate markings inside their throats? Explain the proximate and ultimate cause of the markings.

Question 18

When an incubating graylag goose sees a nearby egg-shaped object, a neural network is triggered, causing the bird to go through an egg-retrieval routine consisting of stretching out its neck, tucking the egg under its bill, and rolling the egg carefully back to the nest. In this example, identify the sign stimulus, the fixed action pattern, and the innate releasing mechanism.

Question 19

Despite the lack of brain-controlled neural circuitry, a male praying mantis that has suffered decapitation by a female rotates his body in a circular pattern until encountering the female's body and then aligns himself with her body to commence copulation. What is the selective advantage of this?

Question 20

The brain's somatosensory cortex does not consist of neurons that relay information equally from all parts of the animal's body. Describe an example of this by identifying a focal animal and the body parts that are disproportionately high in neuron input to the somatosensory cortex.

Question 21

A male moth detects a distant female and begins to fly towards her, but he hears the loud ultrasonic pulses of a hunting bat. The moth decides to employ evasive manoeuvres to avoid the bat, giving up his pursuit of the female moth. What is the ultimate-level explanation for this behavioral decision?

Question 22

The complex, specialized hearing system that noctuid moths use to detect and evade bats is an example of an evolutionary arms race between moths and bats. Describe an example of how natural selection has shaped the evolution of a specialized proximate mechanisms in another moth species in their arms race with bats.