It is fun and the story about us! -...

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Chapter 1 Opener: Charles Darwin‟s study


It is fun and the story about us!

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Operating system of behavior

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Operating system of behavior


How to explain behaviors?

• What is the relationship between genes & behavior?

• Is the trait inherited?

• How does development influence?

• What stimuli trigger the response?

• What is the purpose of the behavior?

• How does the behavior change (or evolve) ?

• How does the behavior contribute to the animal‟s fitness?

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Operating system for our behavior?

The History of Behavioral Science: Nature vs. Nurture Debates

Rene Descartes (1596-1650),

De Homine – 1662

Mechanistic view of behavior

Pineal gland – gateway to soul

Cartesian Gapbetween human and animal

Animal machine without soul

Human Soul-dependent operating system

Hydraulic mechanics

Soul is here!

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Tabular rasa: Blank slate theoryTOWARD Modern society FROM the Middle age

John Locke (1690)Empiricism - knowledge is gained by experience

as provided to the mind by the senses.

-these views advanced by others

David Hume in the 1700s

Treatise of Human Nature

Enquiry concerning human understanding, 1748

And Others…Nature by education

Jean Jacques Rousseau, 1712∼1778

Jean Piazet, 1896-1980

Franz Boad, 1858∼1906

Nature by culture

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Continuity between human and animals

1832, meeting Fuegian natives

It is much greater than between wild &

domesticated animal …no lower grade

of man could be found

1838, Orangutan named Jenny

„Let man visit Ouranoutang in

domestication..see its intelligence..and

then let him boast of his proud

preeminence…

Man in his arrogance thinks himself a

great work, worthy and interposition of

deity.

More humble and I believe true to

consider him created from animals…’

Charles Darwin on the Mental

Continuity of Humans and Animals

Nevertheless the difference in mind between man and

the higher animals, great as it is, certainly is one of

degree and not of kind. We have seen that the senses and

intuitions, the various emotions and faculties, such as love,

memory, attention, curiosity, imitation, reason, etc., of which

man boasts, may be found in an incipient, or even

sometimes in a well-developed condition, in the lower

animals.

In the end of Darwin's two chapters in the Descent of Man

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Let’s take a look…

Let’s take a look…

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Pioneer of Behavioral genetics:

Sir Francis Galton (1822-1911)

"Twins have a special claim upon our

attention; it is, that their history affords

means of distinguishing between the effects

of tendencies received at birth, and those

that were imposed by the special

circumstances of their after lives."

Inquiries into Human Faculty and its

Development,1875

Twin study

Four kinds of twin

Monozygotic twin

Same

Different

Genotype Growth environment

Di-zygotic twin

Same

Different

You can compare MONO-Same vs. MON-Diff or MONO-same vs. Di-same

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Connectionism

Ivan Pavlov

CS CR

URUS CS

CS-US pairing

Stimuli vs. Behavior relations

“Two stimuli are connected in the brain”

BehavioralismBurrhus Skinner (1938)

– All learned behavior is the result of selective

Reinforcement of random responses

– Mental states (what goes on in our minds) have

no effect on our actions

– Similarity between reinforcement and natural

selection: random mutations are "selected" by

the environment, random behavior is also

selected by the environment

Skinner box

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Lorenz, ImprintingThe Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1973

“Imprinting is an Innate genetic program”

Genetic basis of learning and memory (1992)

S. Tonegawa

Nobel prize winner, 1987

Morris water maze

CAMKII KO MICE (Silva et al.,1992)

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Epigenetics: Environmental effects on gene expression via chromatin remodeling

1.1 The monogamous prairie vole

http://animaldiversity.ummz.

umich.edu/site/accounts/inf

ormation/Microtus_ochroga

ster.html

Animal Library:

Rodents are usually polygamous or

promiscuous…

Prairie vole, however,

monogamous and father

takes care babies well!

http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/information/Microtus_ochrogaster.html

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In monogamous relationships– One male mates with one female

(a) Since monogamous species, such as these trumpeter

swans, are often monomorphic, males and females

are difficult to distinguish using external characteristics

only.

Polygamous system

In a system called polygyny– One male mates with many females

– The males are often more showy and larger

than the females

Among polygynous species, such as elk, the male (left) is

often highly ornamented.

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In polyandrous systems– One female mates with many males

– The females are often more showy than the males

In polyandrous species, such as these Wilson’s phalaropes,

females (top) are generally more ornamented than males.

Polygamous system

What is the advantages and

disadvantages?

Group discussion

1. Promiscuity (random mating)

2. Polygyny (e.g. infanticidal)

3. Polyandrous

4. Monogamous (e.g. baby sitting by father)

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Monogamous vs. polygamous

Prarie vole: social, mono

Meadow vole: solitary, poly

Vasopressin

receptor (V1aR)

Dopamine

receptor (D1)

Ventral fore brain

Finding a cause of behavior

Huddling, a measure of social attachment

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A male mice trying to Huddle

1.2 The brain of the prairie vole is a complex, highly organized machine

V1aR receptor expression

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Monogamous vs. polygamous

Ligand:

Arginin-vasopression (AVP)

Receptor:

V1aRPrarie vole: social, mono

Meadow vole: solitary, poly

If V1aR expressed in the male meadow vole

First love

Stranger

1.7 Testing the hypothesis that monogamy in prairie voles is linked to a specific gene

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1.7 Testing the hypothesis that monogamy in prairie voles is linked to a specific gene

Wanderer vs. Resident

Pair bonding intensity

Box 1.1 How are phylogenetic trees constructed and what do they mean?

Species X : ATTGCATATGTTAAA

Species Y : ATTGCATATGGTAAA

Species Z : GTTGTACATGTTAAT

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1.4 The evolutionary relationships of the prairie vole and six of its relatives

1.5 The possible history behind monogamy in the prairie vole

Trial-and-error period

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1.6 The connection between evolutionary history and the mechanisms of behavior

Proximate and Ultimate Questions

• Proximate, or “how,” questions about

behavior

– Focus on the environmental stimuli that trigger a

behavior

– Focus on the genetic, physiological, and

anatomical mechanisms underlying a

behavioral act

• Ultimate, or “why,” questions about behavior

– Address the evolutionary significance of a

behavior

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ULTIMATE CAUSE:By chasing away other male sticklebacks, a male decreases the chance that

eggs laid in his nesting territory will be fertilized by another male.

BEHAVIOR: A male stickleback fish attacks other male sticklebacks that invade its nesting territory.

PROXIMATE CAUSE:The red belly of the intruding male acts as a sign stimulus that releases

aggression in a male stickleback.

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Natural Selection theory: How Gene X Environment?

“Random mutations selected by Environment”

Variation

Heredity

Reproductive success

1.9 A variable species

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1.10 Natural selection


Why they donate their money?

Proximate cause vs. ultimate cause

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Proximate causes…

Emotional cause-They feel happy when donate something

-They are happy when others praise their behaviors

Sociopolitical cause-They can get better things by doing so

Others-They hate money!



Group selection theory:If all people are selfish, the group will disappear soon.

Darwinian View:Those individual has a higher reproductive success

Ultimate causes…

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How to explain the infanticidal

behaviors?

Group discussion

1. Cannibalism

2. Group selection (by Wynne-Edwards in 1962)

3. Quicker reproduction (by Sarah Hirdy)

1.14 Infanticide by a male lion

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1.15 An evolved response to the risk of infanticide

A Male Assassin bug

Male takes care their eggs

Male protects those eggs from against parasitic wasps

A mystery…he do not lose weight during egg guarding

even though they cannot feed elsewhere!!!

1.15 An evolved response to the risk of infanticide

A Giant Water bugs

Male takes care their eggs

Female attacks male or destroys all of his eggs

If fail to do defense, the egg-less males may then mate the killer female

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1.11 A band of Hanuman langur females and their offspring

Male langurs commit infanticide

Baby wounded by infanti-killing male

Mother

1.13 Variation in suicidal tendencies in a make-believe lemming-like species

The Group selection theory by Wynne-Edwards in 1962

Social mortality (Infanticide and suicide)

contribute to the stabilization of population

Adaptation and Natural selection

By George C. Williams in 1966

The survival of alleles is

determined by reproductive success

of individual not by population size

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1.13 Variation in suicidal tendencies in a make-believe lemming-like species

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