Chapter 1

An Evolutionary Approach

to Animal Behaviors

Philosophy,

History,

and Evolution

School?

Advanced Science

& Technology?

SchoolJobWorking place

To get money

Retreat from job &

Taking a rest for thinking

Schole (in Greek, Leisure 休食)

Chapter 1 Opener: Charles Darwin‘s study

School of Athens

Philosophical aspect

School of Athens

Philosophical aspect

Heraclitus

He taught himself by questioning

(Ἡράκλειηος ὁ Ἐθέζιος — Hērákleitos ho Ephésios; c. 535–c. 475 BCE)

The weeping philosopher

Philosophical aspect

Nature loves to hide

Nature Unveiling Herself To Science,

created by Louis Barrias in 1899

Not random but by principles or causes

All things come from Logos

Regarding properties

The path up and down is one

Nature has two opposite properties

The origin of dualism.

Nature is changing

πάνηα χωρεῖ καὶ οὐδὲν μένει

Panta chōrei kai ouden menei

"Everything changes and nothing remains still"

You cannot step twice into the same river

Nature is behaving

Nature does not jump

Natura non facit saltumHow materials are changing?

How life is changing?

History

What is behavior?

Chapter 1 Opener: Charles Darwin‘s study

How to explain behavior?

How much we know now about nature?

Any operating system

underlying 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!

Tabular rasa:

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

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

Genes and EnvironmentSir 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

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)

Chapter 1 Opener: Charles Darwin‘s study

Epigenetics: Environmental effects on gene

expression via chromatin remodeling

+

GeneEnvironment

The theory of evolution

Hypothesis on similarities and

differences among animals

All living life has a common ancestor

Similarity and Origin

Similarity and Origin

Similarity and Origin

Same ancestor or same designer?

Natural Selection theory:

―Random mutations selected by Environment‖

Variation

Geological isolation

Natural selection

Species differentiation

Why we have the behavior?

“Because our ancestors had it”

“But it was not as it is”

“Still changing gradually according

to natural selection”

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

Let’s take a look…

Let’s take a look…

Chapter 1 Opener: Charles Darwin‘s study

Darwinian theory

on species diversificationA

BC

DE

FG

B E G

Tim

e (

na

tura

l s

ele

cti

on

)

Genetic variation + differential reproductive success = evolutionary changes

1.9 A variable species

1.10 Natural selection

Chapter 1 Opener: Charles Darwin‘s study

How to explain behaviors?

• By stimuli which triggers the response

• By structure of nervous system to induce the behavior

• By genes which control the development or physiological

function of the brain

• By evolutionary theory …his ancestor gained the behavior

during natural selection process

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

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.

Proximate and Ultimate Questions

Why they donate their money?

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!

Proximate and Ultimate Questions

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

Darwinian View:Those individual has a higher reproductive success

Ultimate causes…

Why they donate their money?

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!

Microtus ochrogaster

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.

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

Which one is mostly effective for

human mating system?

Group discussion

1. Promiscuity (random mating)

2. Polygyny (e.g. infanticidal)

3. Polyandrous

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

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

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

V1aR receptor expression

A Proximate cause

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

Box 1.1 How to study ultimate causes?

Species X : ATTGCATATGTTAAA

Species Y : ATTGCATATGGTAAA

Species Z : GTTGTACATGTTAAT

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

A Ultimate cause:

How mating system evolve?

1.5 The possible history behind monogamy in the prairie vole

Trial-and-error period

How he recognize his children?

Why females behave like this?

Males begin to protect females

Why male care children?

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

Wanderer vs. Resident

Pair bonding intensity

Behavior is not inherited

thus, genetic mechanisms

Lading to change in the brain

must be involved

1.6 The connection between evolutionary history and the mechanisms of behavior

Behavior is not inherited

thus, genetic mechanisms

Lading to change in the brain

must be involved

1.14 Infanticide by a male lion

Infanticidal behavior of male

1.11 A band of Hanuman langur females and their offspring

Male langurs commit infanticide

Baby wounded by infanti-killing male

Mother

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!!!

Evolved response to the risk of infanticide

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

How to explain the infanticidal

behaviors?

Group discussion

1. Cannibalism

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

3. Quicker reproduction (by Sarah Hirdy)

1.13 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)

contributes to the stabilization of population

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

Adaptive mechanismAdaptation and Natural selection

By George C. Williams in 1966

The survival of alleles is

determined by reproductive success

of individual not by population size

Genetic variation

Natural selection

Behavioral variation

By proximate causes

By ultimate causes