Elicited or Unconditioned Behavior

1. Elicited or Unconditioned Behavior • Occurs without past experience • Modifiable with experience (examples: habituation and sensitization

2. Some Types of Elicited Behaviour • An eliciting or unconditioned stimulus elicits a response without any prior learning • Types of Elicited Behaviour • Simple Reflex • Orienting Reflex • Taxis (taxes) • Kinesis (kineses) • Fixed/Modal Action Patterns

3. FAPs/MAPs • Sequence of behaviors directed at the eliciting (sign or releasing) stimulus • Sometimes requires underlying drive (hydraulic model) • Vigor of response depends on how closely the sign stimulus corresponds to the ideal stimulus (e.g., cute baby) • Small (non-ideal), Normal (ideal), Supernormal (exaggerated ideal)

4. Releasing Stimulus Back

5. Back

6. Supernormal stimulus An accurate 3-dimensional model of a herring gull's head (a), and a 'supernormal' bill (b).

7. Supernormal stimulus

8. a simple type of learning which is shown by a change in elicited behaviour over trials defined as a reduction in responsiveness (frequency, magnitude) over successive trials sometimes short-lasting and sometimes long lasting Habituation

9. Habituation-One Type of Modifiability Eric Kandel and Aplysia

10. Kandel`s Experiments Touch Siphon Gill Withdrawal

11. Habituation gill withdrawal touch

12. Forms of Habituation • Short-Term • lasts only a few minutes • best if stimulus applied at short intervals (2-s) • Long-Term • lasts weeks • best if stimulus applied at longer intervals (30-s)

13. Simplified Circuit

14. What’s the Mechanism of Short-term? decreases in synaptic transmission loss of skin sensitivity decrease in motor synapse fatigue

15. Not Muscle Fatigue Spontaneous Evoked Pinsker et al., (1970) Science 167:1740

16. What’s the Mechanism of Short-term? decreases in synaptic transmission loss of skin sensitivity decrease in motor synapse fatigue

17. Not Motor Synapse Before skin SN After electrical MN record gill Kupfermann et al., (1970) Science 167:1743

18. What’s the Mechanism of Short-term? decreases in synaptic transmission loss of skin sensitivity decrease in motor synapse fatigue

19. Skin Sensitivity? touch skin SN MN record MN activity to assay habituation gill Stage 1 Kupfermann et al., (1970) Science 167:1743

20. Not Skin Sensitivity touch skin SN block MN record MN activity to assay habituation gill Kupfermann et al., (1970) Science 167:1743

21. What’s the Mechanism of Short-term? decreases in synaptic transmission loss of skin sensitivity decrease in motor synapse fatigue

22. Mechanism of Short-term Habituation Decrease in neurotransmitter released at the synapse with both the motor neuron and the interneuron!

23. Mechanism of Long-Term Habituation Change in the number of synapses!

24. Some Properties of Habituated Responses • Spontaneous Recovery • Dishabituation • Generalization

25. Spontaneous Recovery Stimulus Hi Response Time Passes Lo Number of Presentations

26. Dishabituation Stimulus Novel Event (no time passes) Hi Response Habituation Dishabituation Lo Number of Presentations

27. Generalization

28. Sensitization- Another Type of Modifiability • enhanced response to a “benign” stimulus after exposure to a “noxious” one (most common) • for example, startle • enhanced response after repeated presentations of a “not so benign” stimulus (less common) • for example, kindling

29. Rat Startle

30. Human Startle

31. Kindling • repeated stimulation of hippocampal cells increases responsiveness • after being sensitized, very little stimulation is required to produce the seizures • related to epilepsy

32. Dual Process Theory Competition between two separate processes 1. S-R System: Habituation 2. State System: Sensitization

33. Examples

34. Conditions Favouring Habituation • Calm organism • Shorter interstimulus intervals • Less variable interstimulus intervals • Low intensity • Less complexity • More trials

35. Interstimulus Interval

36. Complexity Looking Time Trials

37. Imagine……… Kendra is an overly anxious person. She worries about the smallest things. Some examples of the unpleasant symptoms she experiences include excessive sweating, heart palpitations, and a fitful sleep. Her anxiety places her at risk for depression, heart disease, and diabetes. A genetic test reveals Kendra has a vulnerability in the promoter region of her serotonin transporter gene. Her doctor tells her that if her mother had been more loving and attentive when Kendra was younger, she might have been calmer. The doctor maintains experience can program calmness, and calmness acquired by experience is inheritable.

38. Epigenetics and Early Experience • Genes affect bodily processes, including emotional regulation • Two copies of the “short” version of a promoter for the serotonin transporter gene is a risk factor

39. Maternal Behavior licking and grooming (LG) and arched-back nursing (ABN) Low LG-ABN mothers High LG-ABN mothers

40. Attentive Mothering • Licking and arched-back nursing by mother • an immediate “calming” effect on baby rats in the first week after birth • a long-term reduction in stress responsiveness • the promoter for the short version of serotonin transporter gene is “switched on” by attentive mothering • so, a vulnerable pup with two short copies of the promoter for the serotonin transporter gene is cured by its mother’s licking (short gene works better) • this environmental effect is passed along to the pup’s own offspring

41. Brain of Vulnerable Baby Rat high LG-ABN mother short gene expressed less anxiety

42. Cross-fostering Studies

43. Imagine……… Kendra’s doctor gives her a prescription for a pill that will promote the activity of the malfunctioning gene. No other therapy is necessary. Kendra’s children inherit the faulty gene, but its function is enhanced.