|
Escape Response
Escape response, escape reaction, or escape behavior is a mechanism by which animals avoid potential predation. It consists of a rapid sequence of movements, or lack of movement, that position the animal in such a way that allows it to hide, freeze, or flee from the supposed predator. Often, an animal's escape response is representative of an instinctual defensive mechanism, though there is evidence that these escape responses may be learned or influenced by experience. The classical escape response follows this generalized, conceptual timeline: threat detection, escape initiation, escape execution, and escape termination or conclusion. Threat detection notifies an animal to a potential predator or otherwise dangerous stimulus, which provokes escape initiation, through neural reflexes or more coordinated cognitive processes. Escape execution refers to the movement or series of movements that will hide the animal from the threat or will allow for the animal to flee. Once the ani ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Habituation
Habituation is a form of non-associative learning in which an organism’s non-reinforced response to an inconsequential stimulus decreases after repeated or prolonged presentations of that stimulus. For example, organisms may habituate to repeated sudden loud noises when they learn that these have no consequences. Habituation can occur in responses that habituate include those that involve an entire organism or specific biological component systems of an organism. The broad ubiquity of habituation across all forms of life has led to it being called "the simplest, most universal form of learning...as fundamental a characteristic of life as DNA." Functionally, habituation is thought to free up cognitive resources for other stimuli that are associated with biologically important events by diminishing the response to inconsequential stimuli. A progressive decline of a behavior in a habituation procedure may also reflect nonspecific effects such as fatigue, which must be ruled ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brown-headed Cowbird
The brown-headed cowbird (''Molothrus ater'') is a small, obligate brood parasitic icterid native to temperate and subtropical North America. It is a permanent resident in the southern parts of its range; northern birds migrate to the southern United States and Mexico in winter, returning to their summer habitat around March or April. Taxonomy The brown-headed cowbird was described by the French polymath Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon in 1775 in his '' Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux'' from a specimen collected in the Carolinas. The bird was also illustrated in a hand-colored plate engraved by François-Nicolas Martinet in the ''Planches Enluminées D'Histoire Naturelle'', which was produced under the supervision of Edme-Louis Daubenton to accompany Buffon's text. Neither the plate caption nor Buffon's description included a scientific name, but in 1783, Dutch naturalist Pieter Boddaert coined the binomial name ''Oriolus ater'' in his catalogue of the ''Planches Enlumin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Operant Conditioning
Operant conditioning, also called instrumental conditioning, is a learning process in which voluntary behaviors are modified by association with the addition (or removal) of reward or aversive stimuli. The frequency or duration of the behavior may increase through reinforcement or decrease through punishment or Extinction (psychology), extinction. Origins Operant conditioning originated with Edward Thorndike, whose law of effect theorised that behaviors arise as a result of consequences as satisfying or discomforting. In the 20th century, operant conditioning was studied by Behaviorism, behavioral psychologists, who believed that much of mind and behaviour is explained through environmental conditioning. Reinforcements are environmental stimuli that increase behaviors, whereas punishments are stimuli that decrease behaviors. Both kinds of stimuli can be further categorised into positive and negative stimuli, which respectively involve the addition or removal of environmental stim ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Avoidance Response
An avoidance response is a response that prevents an aversive stimulus (psychology), stimulus from occurring. It is a kind of negative reinforcement. An avoidance response is a behavior based on the concept that animals will avoid performing behaviors that result in an aversive outcome. This can involve learning through operant conditioning when it is used as a training technique. It is a reaction to undesirable sensations or feedback that leads to avoiding the behavior that is followed by this unpleasant or fear-inducing stimulus. Whether the aversive stimulus is brought on intentionally by another or is naturally occurring, it is adaptive to learn to avoid situations that have previously yielded negative outcomes. A simple example of this is conditioned food aversion, or the aversion developed to food that has previously resulted in sickness. Food aversions can also be conditioned using classical conditioning, so that an animal learns to avoid a stimulus previously neutral that ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Flight Zone
The flight zone of an animal is the area surrounding an animal that if encroached upon by a potential predator or threat, including humans, will cause alarm and escape behavior. The flight zone is determined by the animal's flight distance, sometimes called flight initiation distance (FID) which extends horizontally from the animal and sometimes vertically. It may also be termed escape distance, alert distance, flush distance, and escape flight distance. Swiss zoologist Heini Hediger distinguished between ''flight distance'' (run boundary), ''critical distance'' (attack boundary), ''personal distance'' (distance separating members of non-contact species, as a pair of swans), and ''social distance'' (intraspecies communication distance). Flight distance can be used as a measure of the willingness of an animal to take risks. Escape theory predicts that the probability of fleeing and flight distance increase as predation risk increases and decrease as escape cost increases. Fligh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Grey Seal
The grey seal (''Halichoerus grypus'') is a large seal of the family Phocidae, which are commonly referred to as "true seals" or "earless seals". The only species classified in the genus ''Halichoerus'', it is found on both shores of the North Atlantic Ocean. In Latin, ''Halichoerus grypus'' means "hook-nosed sea pig". Its name is spelled gray seal in the United States; it is also known as Atlantic seal and the horsehead seal. Taxonomy There are two recognized subspecies of this seal: The type specimen of ''H. g. grypus'' ( Zoological Museum of Copenhagen specimen ZMUC M11-1525, caught in 1788 off the island of Amager, Danish part of the Baltic Sea) was believed lost for many years, but was rediscovered in 2016, and a DNA test showed it belonged to a Baltic Sea specimen rather than from Greenland, as had previously been assumed (because it was first described in Otto Fabricius' book on the animals in Greenland: ''Fauna Groenlandica''). The name ''H. g. g ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Orbicularis Oculi Muscle
The orbicularis oculi is a Sphincter, sphincter-like muscle in the face that closes the eyelids. It arises from the nasal part of the frontal bone, from the frontal process of the maxilla in front of the lacrimal groove, and from the anterior surface and borders of a short fibrous band, the medial palpebral ligament. From this origin, the fibers are directed laterally, forming a broad and thin layer, which occupies the eyelids or palpebræ, surrounds the circumference of the orbit, and spreads over the temple, and downward on the cheek. Structure There are at least 3 clearly defined sections of the orbicularis muscle. However, it is not clear whether the lacrimal section is a separate section, or whether it is just an extension of the preseptal and pretarsal sections. Orbital orbicularis The orbital portion is thicker and of a reddish color; its fibers form a complete ellipse without interruption at the lateral palpebral commissure; the upper fibers of this portion blend with the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arrector Pili Muscle
The arrector pili muscles, also known as hair erector muscles, are small muscles attached to hair follicles in mammals. Contraction of these muscles causes the hairs to stand on end, known colloquially as goose bumps (piloerection). Structure Each arrector pili is composed of a bundle of smooth muscle fibres which attach to several follicles (a follicular unit). Each is innervated by the sympathetic division of the autonomic nervous system. The muscle attaches to the follicular stem cell niche in the follicular bulge, splitting at their deep end to encircle the follicle. Function The contraction of the muscle is involuntary. Stresses such as cold, fear etc. may stimulate the sympathetic nervous system, and thus cause muscle contraction. Thermal insulation Contraction of arrector pili muscles have a principal function in the majority of mammals of providing thermal insulation. Air becomes trapped between the erect hairs, helping the animal retain heat. Self defence Many ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Elephant
Elephants are the largest living land animals. Three living species are currently recognised: the African bush elephant ('' Loxodonta africana''), the African forest elephant (''L. cyclotis''), and the Asian elephant ('' Elephas maximus''). They are the only surviving members of the family Elephantidae and the order Proboscidea; extinct relatives include mammoths and mastodons. Distinctive features of elephants include a long proboscis called a trunk, tusks, large ear flaps, pillar-like legs, and tough but sensitive grey skin. The trunk is prehensile, bringing food and water to the mouth and grasping objects. Tusks, which are derived from the incisor teeth, serve both as weapons and as tools for moving objects and digging. The large ear flaps assist in maintaining a constant body temperature as well as in communication. African elephants have larger ears and concave backs, whereas Asian elephants have smaller ears and convex or level backs. Elephants are scatter ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Learned Helplessness
Learned helplessness is the behavior exhibited by a subject after enduring repeated aversive stimuli beyond their control. It was initially thought to be caused by the subject's acceptance of their powerlessness, by way of their discontinuing attempts to escape or avoid the aversive stimulus, even when such alternatives are unambiguously presented. Upon exhibiting such behavior, the subject was said to have acquired learned helplessness. Over the past few decades, neuroscience has provided insight into learned helplessness and shown that the original theory was the wrong way about—the brain's default state is to assume that control is not present. The presence of control is therefore learned. However, it is unlearned when a subject is faced with prolonged aversive stimulation. In humans, learned helplessness is related to the concept of self-efficacy, the individual's belief in their innate ability to achieve goals. Learned helplessness theory is the view that clinical depress ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Startle Response
In animals, including humans, the startle response is a largely unconscious defensive response to sudden or threatening Stimulus (physiology), stimuli, such as sudden noise or sharp movement, and is associated with negative Affect (psychology), affect.Rammirez-Moreno, David. "A computational model for the modulation of the prepulse inhibition of the acoustic startle reflex". ''Biological Cybernetics'', 2012, p. 169 Usually the onset of the startle response is a startle reflex reaction. The startle reflex is a brainstem reflectory reaction (reflex) that serves to protect vulnerable parts, such as the back of the neck (whole-body startle) and the eyes (eyeblink) and Fight-or-flight response, facilitates escape from sudden stimuli. It is found across many different species, throughout all stages of life. A variety of responses may occur depending on the affected individual's emotional state, body posture, preparation for execution of a motor task, or other activities. The startle respo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
