Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- 1 Organisation of animal behaviour and of brains: feeding in star-nosed moles and courtship in fruit flies
- 2 Signals in nerve cells: reflexes in mammals and insects
- 3 Neuronal mechanisms for releasing behaviour: predator and prey – toad and cockroach
- 4 Neuronal pathways for behaviour: startle behaviours and giant neurons in crayfish and fish
- 5 Eyes and vision: sensory filtering and course control in insects
- 6 Sensory maps: hunting by owls and bats
- 7 Programmes for movement: how nervous systems generate and control rhythmic movements
- 8 Changes in nerve cells and behaviour: learning in bees and rats; swarming in locusts
- 9 Nerve cells and animal signalling: songs of crickets, electric fish and birds
- References
- Index
Preface
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 August 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- 1 Organisation of animal behaviour and of brains: feeding in star-nosed moles and courtship in fruit flies
- 2 Signals in nerve cells: reflexes in mammals and insects
- 3 Neuronal mechanisms for releasing behaviour: predator and prey – toad and cockroach
- 4 Neuronal pathways for behaviour: startle behaviours and giant neurons in crayfish and fish
- 5 Eyes and vision: sensory filtering and course control in insects
- 6 Sensory maps: hunting by owls and bats
- 7 Programmes for movement: how nervous systems generate and control rhythmic movements
- 8 Changes in nerve cells and behaviour: learning in bees and rats; swarming in locusts
- 9 Nerve cells and animal signalling: songs of crickets, electric fish and birds
- References
- Index
Summary
Our aim in this book is to introduce university students to research on nervous systems that is directly relevant to animal behaviour, and to do so without assuming a detailed knowledge of neurophysiology. We concentrate on examples of studies in neuroethology that illustrate clearly how the activity of nerve cells is linked with animal behaviour. The level of the book is for advanced undergraduate students, particularly those studying zoology, biology or psychology, but we hope it will also be useful to students in other disciplines and to postgraduates.
Each chapter is given a title in two parts: a description of its general area and then usually the specific topics to be described. We begin with a consideration of how animal behaviour and brains are organised. Chapter 2 is an introduction to the nuts and bolts of how nerve cells work, and we approach this by referring to specific examples that illustrate concepts without delving into detailed cellular physiology. The next two chapters describe some clear examples where the roles of particular neurons in predator–prey interactions have been established. We then describe two different types of sensory systems in which roles of specific neurons in behaviour have been recognised – vision in insects and hearing in owls and bats – followed by a chapter on the control of rhythmical movements. Chapter 8 describes research on changes in behaviour, including learning.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Nerve Cells and Animal Behaviour , pp. vii - viiiPublisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010