SEED GRASPING IN THE PIGEON (COLUMBA LIVIA): BEHAVIORAL ORGANIZATION AND FINAL COMMON PATH.
Item
-
Title
-
SEED GRASPING IN THE PIGEON (COLUMBA LIVIA): BEHAVIORAL ORGANIZATION AND FINAL COMMON PATH.
-
Identifier
-
AAI8401937
-
identifier
-
8401937
-
Creator
-
KLEIN, BRADLEY GORDON.
-
Contributor
-
Prof. H. Philip Zeigler
-
Date
-
1983
-
Language
-
English
-
Publisher
-
City University of New York.
-
Subject
-
Psychology, Psychobiology
-
Abstract
-
This study reflected the application of a peripheral to central strategy in attempting to understand the neural control of vertebrate ingestive behavior. High speed cinematography was combined with peripheral nerve sections to study normal topography, spatiotemporal organization and peripheral motor control of the opening-grasping component of the pigeon's eating response. This component was chosen since: (1) it differentiates eating from drinking, (2) it is easily quantifiable, (3) it is under the stimulus control of an easily quantifiable stimulus variable and (4) it is presumably under the control of only two muscles. Experiment 1 examined the control of individual jaw movements during opening-grasping, as well as the basis for adjustments of gape to seed size. Experiment 2 examined the final common path for opening-grasping. Changes in both the velocity and duration of mouth opening were found to be responsible for adjustments of gape to seed size. An analysis of the factors mediating the changes in duration of mouth opening revealed that efferent systems controlling the jaws and the neck must be involved in gape adjustments. Closer examination of jaw movements during opening-grasping revealed that both jaws open for all seed sizes (from 4.1 mm to 9.1 mm), with the amount of displacement of each jaw varying with seed size. Furthermore, opening of the upper jaw preceded that of the lower jaw. Given the morphological arrangement of the pigeon skull (coupled kinesis) this suggested that the protractor quadrati muscle was involved in beak opening as well as the depressor mandibulae muscle. Sections of the motor nerves to the jaw opener muscles supported the view that M. protractor quadrati is involved in opening-grasping and established that the depressor mandibulae nerve and the protractor quadrati nerve compose the final common path for this behavior. Seed grasping appears functionally, behaviorally and neurally analogous to visually guided grasping in other vertebrates. Further examination of the neural control of seed grasping therefore promises to be of great interest in attempting to uncover common mechanisms of visually guided behavior, as well as common mechanisms of ingestive behavior in vertebrates.
-
Type
-
dissertation
-
Source
-
PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
-
degree
-
Ph.D.
-
Program
-
Psychology
