BIOL 306 Study Guide - Fall 2018, Comprehensive Midterm Notes - Mcgill University, Neuron, Membrane Potential
12 Oct 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
BIOL 306
MIDTERM EXAM
STUDY GUIDE
Fall 2018
McGill University—BIOL 306 Profs. Alanna Watt, Joe Dent, Tomoko Ohyama
Chloé Davidson 1
September 5th, 2018
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Prerequisites: BIOL 201, BIOC 212, ANAT 212 or NSCI 200; PHYS 102/142 or CEGEP physics
Grading:
Assignment: 2%
o Online, covers similar material to Midterm 1. DO IT.
Midterm 1 (September 25th, 7:30-9:00): 18%
Midterm 2 (October 30th, 7:30-9:30): 35%
Final (TBD): 45%
Material on exams is only what was covered in lectures.
LECTURE
Abbreviations: NS=nervous system
INTRODUCTION
We can explore the function and role of the nervous system in animals by studying how the
nervous system allows for behaviour:
o Neurobiology labs: studying animals in an artificial setting, ex: a lab
o Behaviour “lab”: studying animals in their natural habitat.
What is the function of the nervous system?
o A special case: the sea squirt
The sea squirt (tunicate) is an animal that lives attached to a rock, shell or other
stationary surface underwater where currents are good. They pretty much just
passively filter water to get food.
Tunicate larvae ressemble tadpoles, and have brains, eyes and a tail. They swim
around to find their home
Once the home is found, they digest non-necessary organs. The tail, the
eyes… and the brain.
o In the special case, the sea squirt keeps its brain as long as it needs to react to the world
around it and make a decision about its adult home. When the decision has been made,
the sea squirt no longer needs its brain.
o Therefore, one can conclude that brains are only necessary for behaviour.
Behaviour, such as: fly, walk, swim, scratch…
How does the NS produce behaviour?
Through detecting and analysing sensory signals (detecting and
analysing stimuli)
Decision making (integration of information)
Generate coordinated motor output (the behaviour)
NEUROETHOLOGY
Neuroethology: the study of the neural basis of natural behaviour.
o Pioneered by Tinbergen, von Frisch and Lorenz
o Tinbergen’s four questions:
What is the function of the behaviour?
What is the phylogeny of the behaviour? (What is the evolutionary history of the
behaviour?)
What causes the behaviour? (What is the behaviour’s trigger and mechanism?)
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
McGill University—BIOL 306 Profs. Alanna Watt, Joe Dent, Tomoko Ohyama
Chloé Davidson 2
How did the behaviour develop?
Examples of questions a neuroethologist would ask for the behaviour of
frog mating calls:
o Male frogs:
What is the song’s content?
How is the song controlled? (Ex: seasonally?
Hormonally?)
How do the muscles coordinate to produce the song?
What is the optimal song?
o Female frogs:
Is the female receptive to the song?
How does the female detect the song?
How does the female identify a male of her own species
(vs a male of another species?)
How does she discriminate between songs?
How does she know where the source of the song is?
o Frisch’s complex behaviours in simple animals:
Known for observation of the bee waggle dance
Bees communicate via dancing.
o The angle of the waggles tells the hive the angle from the sun, to
the right or left depending on the direction the bee circles after
o The length of the waggle tells the distance.
o Lorentz found out about instinctive behaviours (mostly in geese)
Ex: imprinting:
Baby geese have a critical period during which they will imprint to any
large nearby object, including objects that don’t look like mother goose.
o They will follow the imprinted object around.
Found other fixed action patterns:
Ex: egg retrieval behaviour:
o Any object vaguely egg-sized in the vicinity of a mother goose
will lead to her retrieving it in a highly stereotyped behaviour that
cannot be interrupted even if the stimulus is removed.
STUDYING ANIMAL SYSTEMS
Pick an animal for which a given behaviour is:
o Robust (doesn’t change)
o Simple
o Easy to access (easy to trigger)
o Ethologically relevant (AKA practical)
Ex: the squid giant axon is incredibly easy to study compared to other neuron
axons due to its size.
Other reasons to pick an animal:
o Example: transgenics make mice very powerful models.
The most easy way to study specific behaviours is in a lab (ex: artificial scenarios to evaluate
memory or motor coordination)
Studying many animals is importantgoal is to discover general principles of the NS
o Studying animals with exaggerated or specialized behaviour can provide even more
insight since they are extremes.
WHAT WILL WE STUDY?
Echolocation (bat)
Hearing (owl)
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Prerequisites: biol 201, bioc 212, anat 212 or nsci 200; phys 102/142 or cegep physics. Assignment: 2: online, covers similar material to midterm 1. Material on exams is only what was covered in lectures. We can explore the function and role of the nervous system in animals by studying how the nervous system allows for behaviour: What is the function of the nervous system: neurobiology labs: studying animals in an artificial setting, ex: a lab, behaviour lab : studying animals in their natural habitat, a special case: the sea squirt. The sea squirt (tunicate) is an animal that lives attached to a rock, shell or other stationary surface underwater where currents are good. They pretty much just passively filter water to get food. Tunicate larvae ressemble tadpoles, and have brains, eyes and a tail. They swim around to find their home eyes and the brain. Once the home is found, they digest non-necessary organs.
