118 Lecture 8.1 [Proximate/ultimate Causes]

Front 1

proximate causes of behaviour

Back 1

ontogeny (learning + maturation) and physiological mechanisms

Front 2

ultimate (historic) causes of behaviour

Back 2

impact on reproductive success + origins/evolution

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ultimate cause of prairie voles

Back 3

monogamous prairie voles produce more offspring with genes for monogamy than polygynous prairie voles; this is an ultimate cause

Front 4

history of monogamous voles

Back 4

polygynous males who dominate other males --> infanticidal males who gain mates by disposing their pups --> proiscuous females who protect their young against infanticide --> mate-guarding males who provent female promiscuity --> parental males who care for their offspring --> monogamous pairs

Front 5

more on proximate causes

Back 5

genetic developmental mechanisms; effects of heredity on behaviour; gene-environment;

sensory

Front 6

monogamy in prairie voles --> specific gene?

Back 6

v1ar gene in ventral pallium huddle more closely with a female partner after mating than males who lack this gene.

Front 7

proximate questions

Back 7

what happens during development to result in emergence of song learning and variations//does operation of the brain differ among males who sing and females who do not

Front 8

ultimate questions

Back 8

do differences among individual males in song ability determine reproductive success, and are differences in song learning rooted in evolutionary questions?

Front 9

zebra finch

Back 9

Hearing is critically important for song learning in the zebra finch, shown by a sonogram of a male's song to his two male offspring. first son's hearing was intact and he was able to copy father's song accurately, whereas second son was deafened early in life and never sang a typical zebra finch song.

Front 10

how do we know if regional differences are genetic or environmental?

Back 10

isolated young birds in lab, found that white-crowned sparrows maybe have a critical period of 10-50 days after hatching when their neural systems can acquire information (according to this hypothesis).

Front 11

more about white crowned sparrows!

Back 11

caged next to a strawberry finch will learn the song of its social tutor;

Front 12

sonograms of contact calls of galahs + pink cockatoos

Back 12

Discovered that social and acoustic elements are needed.

Front 13

experimental design

Back 13

compare male song learners and female brains; males have zz chromosomes + females have zw; zz chromosomes --> gonads --> testosterone --> song learning centers. For females, zw --> estrogen --> no song learning

BUT, high levels of estrogen injected into females = singing. Males have a higher concentration of brain estrogen than females do.

Front 14

song competition in the starling

Back 14

the RA of males exposed to high-quality songs when they are adults increases in size, unlike some other song control nuclei.

Front 15

song learning in the swamp sparrow

Back 15

something ?

Front 16

ZENK activation in ingress

Back 16

this activation occurs in the ventral caudomedial neostriatum when female hears song; thereafter she preers perch when long version of the song is played.

Front 17

arcopallium

Back 17

RA in zebra finches; much bigger in males than females

Front 18

Neural plasticity

Back 18

HVC responds to specific part of a song when learning or producing, when adolescent begins matching song to memory template, strong activation of ZENK gene in area x occurs, then ZENK activation decreases as song becomes a closer match to template; song becomes generally fixed when ZENK activation ceases.

Front 19

ultimate causes of song learning

Back 19

newest phylogeny (2008) indicates that song learning evolved just twice, in ancestor of songbirds and of parrots (similar), and in hummingbirds

Front 20

the eastern phoebe

Back 20

a member of the passeriformes that don't need to hear others sing in order to produce a song on its own. Learning does not figure in the development of song

Front 21

Bird song repel territorial intruders?

Back 21

Territories from which resident male white-throated sparrows were experimentally removed attracted fewer intruders when the taped song was broadcast from vacant territory

Front 22

songs match habitats

Back 22

great tits from dense forests produce pure whistles of relatively low frequency, whereas males that live in more open places use more and higher sound frequencies in their more complex songs.

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type matching:

Back 23

targent bird responds to type a song with type a song

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repertior matching:

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target bird does not respond with same type song, but with one in shared repertior

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mismatch:

Back 25

target bird responds with song that is not shared

Front 26

song matching and communication of aggressive intent

Back 26

song sparrow males control level of conflict by their selection of songs; when a focal male sings a shared song at a rival, the neighbour has three options: 1. keep contest at the same level, 2. escalate contest 3. de-escalate conflict

Front 27

cassin finches are examples of directing their songs at females

Back 27

evidence for this: when paired with a female on day one, he sings only a little bit; but he invests a lot more time in singing when she leaves.

Front 28

environmental effects on singing

Back 28

nutritional stress early in life means that song learning and HVC development decline (as seen in experiments in the swamp sparrow).

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blah

Back 29

blah