Neuroethology

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The Neuroethology (sometimes: Behavioral Physiology ) is a branch of biology and combines the methods of behavioral research with those of Neurology , the neurobiology and sensory physiology . Early representatives of behavioral physiology were Karl von Frisch and Erich von Holst .

In this field, the mechanisms that are used by nervous systems to generate and control behavior are examined - today usually at the level of individual cells or the smallest possible cell groups. This includes u. a. the reception of stimuli from the environment (e.g. light, chemical signals, pressure stimuli), their transmission to the central nervous system or comparable processing centers as well as all aspects of the reaction to an external stimulus (e.g. muscle movements, vocalizations, excretion of pheromones ). So neuroethology examines the details of all elements of the "schematic" of behavior, including "input" and "output".

A typical example of such investigations today is the analysis of the behavior of lobsters , which can smell potential food (e.g. dead animals) under water over considerable distances and serve as a model organism for the analysis of olfactory perception (olfactory behavior). Although the nerve cells responsible for smelling in lobsters are far less complexly interconnected than in vertebrates , little is known about the interaction of stimulus-sensitive cells on their antennae and on their legs, the nerve cells leading to the brain, and the conversion of sensory impressions into targeted movements.

Neuroethologists often prefer non-vertebrate animals as experimental animals to vertebrates because the analysis of sensory performance often first requires the deactivation of the stimulus-sensitive organs, i.e. their amputation; Experiments on lobsters or other crustaceans regularly arouse less criticism than comparable experiments on mice or rats . However, there is a trend towards the investigation of neuroethological issues in vertebrates.

In 1981 the International Society for Neuroethology (ISN) was founded on the occasion of the NATO Advanced Study Institute Advances in Vertebrate Neuroethology organized at the University of Kassel by Jörg-Peter Ewert , DJ Ingle and RR Capranica . Its first president was Theodore Holmes Bullock. The first ISN congress took place in Tokyo in 1986.

Neuroethology textbooks

  • GKH Zupanc: Behavioral Neurobiology: An Integrative Approach . Oxford University Press, New York 2004, ISBN 0-19-870056-3 .
  • TJ Carew: Behavioral Neurobiology: The Cellular Organization of Natural Behavior . Sinauer, Sunderland Mass 2000, ISBN 0-87893-084-1 .
  • P. Simmons, D. Young: Nerve Cells and Animal Behavior. 2nd Edition. Cambridge University Press, New York 1999, ISBN 0-521-62216-6 .
  • J. Camhi: Neuroethology: Nerve Cells and the Natural Behavior of Animals . Sinauer Associates, 1984, ISBN 0-87893-075-2 .
  • DM Guthrie: Neuroethology: An Introduction . Wiley, New York 1980, ISBN 0-632-00303-0 .
  • J.-P. Ewert: Neuroethology: An Introduction to the Neurophysiological Fundamentals of Behavior . Springer-Verlag, New York 1980, ISBN 0-387-09790-2 .
  • J.-P. Ewert: Neuroethology: Introduction to the neurophysiological basics of behavior. (= Heidelberg pocket books. Volume 181). HT 181. Springer-Verlag, Heidelberg / Berlin / New York 1976, ISBN 3-540-07773-1 .
  • P. Marler, WJ Hamilton: Mechanisms of Animal Behavior . John Wiley & Sons, New York 1966.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ GKH Zupanc: The study of animal behavior: a brief history. In: GKH Zupanc: Behavioral Neurobiology: An integrative Approach . Oxford Univ. Press, Oxford 2004, pp. 11-34.
  2. ↑ M. Nusbaum, MP Beennhakker: A small-systems approach to motor pattern generation. In: Nature. Volume 417, 2002, pp. 343-350.
  3. ^ TJ Carew: Sensory worlds. In: TJ Carew: Behavioral Neurobiology . Sinauer, Sunderland MA 2000, pp. 33-124.
  4. ^ TH Bullock: Neuroethology has pregnant agendas. In: J. Comp. Physiol. A. Volume 185, No. 4, 1999, pp. 291-295. doi: 10.1007 / s003590050389
  5. ^ AJ Horner, MJ Weissburg, CD Derby: Dual antennular chemosensory pathways can mediate orientation by Caribbean spiny lobsters in naturalistic flow conditions. In: J. Exp. Biol. Volume 207, 2004, pp. 3785-3796, doi: 10.1242 / jeb.01200
  6. ^ FW Grasso, J. Basil: How lobsters, crayfishes, and crabs locate sources of odor: current perspectives and future directions. In: Curr. Opin. Neurobiol. Volume 12, No. 6, 2002, pp. 721-727, doi: 10.1016 / S0959-4388 (02) 00388-4
  7. ^ Martin Heisenberg : President's column. International Society for Neuroethology, Newsletter, March 2008, p. 2. ( Full text (PDF) )