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Behavioral Neurobiology: The Cellular Organization of Natural Behavior

Thomas J. Carew, University of California, Irvine

2000
419 pages, 208 illustrations
paper

About This Title

Behavioral Neurobiology provides a novel treatment of the neural basis of behavior. The pedagogical premise of the book is that general insights into the neuronal organization of behavior can be gained by examining neural solutions that have evolved in animals to solve problems encountered in their particular environmental niches. Therefore, rather than organizing the chapters around general themes, such as "Motor Systems" or "Learning and Memory," the author presents in-depth "case studies" of individual animals; themes clearly emerge, but take on additional meaning by being considered in a real-world behavioral context.

While each chapter focuses on the world of a single animal, chapters are clustered into three major thematic sections: Sensory Worlds, Motor Strategies, and Behavioral Plasticity. At the end of each section is a "Coda" highlighting general principles of neuronal organization common to the chapters within it.

In writing the book, Dr. Carew has drawn on his many years of undergraduate teaching at Yale University. Behavioral Neurobiology does not presume a strong biological background, and is therefore suitable for a general undergraduate audience. However, the material is treated in sufficient depth to make the book useful for advanced undergraduate and graduate courses in behavioral neurobiology or neuroethology as well.

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About the Author(s)

Thomas J. Carew is Bren Professor and Chair of the Department of Neurobiology and Behavior at the University of California, Irvine. He earned his Ph.D. in Physiological Psychology at the University of California, Riverside, where he began his studies of learning and memory as a graduate student. In addition to numerous journal articles, he has coauthored two books: Perspectives in Neural Systems and Behavior (with D. B. Kelley, Alan R. Liss, Inc., 1989) and Mechanistic Relationships Between Development and Learning (with C. Shatz and R. Menzel, John Wiley & Sons, 1998). Among the many awards he has received are the NIMH Career Development Award (1975--1987), an NIMH MERIT Award (1990--2000), and the Yale College Dylan Hixon Prize for Excellence in Teaching in the Natural Sciences (1990). In addition, Dr. Carew was awarded endowed chairs at both Yale University and the University of California. In Dr. Carew's laboratory, he and his colleagues use the marine mollusk Aplysia to examine the mechanisms by which the nervous system acquires, stores, and retrieves information. Dr. Carew's research interests focus on the cellular and molecular basis of learning and memory, the neuronal basis of behavior, and mechanisms of information processing in the nervous system.

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Table of Contents

I. An Introduction to the Cellular Analysis of Behavior

1. Neurons as the Building Blocks of Behavior

The Quantitative Analysis of Behavior in the Field and the Laboratory

Basic Properties of Neurons

Cells, Synapses and Circuits

Relating Nerve Cells to Behavior

II. Sensory Worlds

2. Echolocation in Bats

The Behavioral Repertoire of Bats

• What Clues Do Bats Use to Decode Their Acoustic Environment?
• The Hunting Bat

 

Neural Mechanisms of Echolocation

• The Basilar Membrane and Primary Sensory Neurons
• The Inferior Colliculus
• The Auditory Cortex

 

Why Are There Any Moths Left?

3. Prey Location in Barn Owls

Bringing the Behaving Barn Owl into the Laboratory

• Intensity Cues
• Timing Cues

 

Exploring the Neural Pathways for Sound Localization

• Space-Specific Neurons Provide a Map of Auditory Space
• The Measurement and Encoding of Interaural Time Difference
• Delay Lines and Coincidence Detectors

 

Visual Calibration of the Auditory World

• Behavioral Analysis of the Role of Visual Experience in Auditory Localization
• Neural Correlates of Behavioral Plasticity
• A Sensitive Period for Visual Calibration of ITD Tuning in the Optic Tectum
• Sites of Adaptive Plasticity in the Auditory System

 

4. Feature Detection in Toads

Recognition and Localization of Predators and Prey

• Responses in the Natural Environment
• Bringing Prey-Catching Behavior into the Laboratory

 

The Search for Feature Detectors in the Toad's Brain

• The Visual System of the Toad
• Responses of Retinal Ganglion Cells to Behaviorally Relevant Stimuli
• Response of Thalamic-Pretectal Neurons
• Responses of Tectal Neurons
• A Candidate Neural Circuit for Feature Detection in the Toad

 

From Recognition to Response

III. Motor Strategies

5. Mate Calling in Crickets

Song Production by the Male

• The Neural Circuitry for Song Production
• Triggering a Song

 

Song Recognition by the Female

• Essential Features of the Calling Song
• Recognition and Localization of the Song
• Neuronal Processing of Song

 

SenderóReceiver Matching

6. Locust Flight

The Flying Locust

• A Behavioral Analysis of Flight
• Anatomy of the Flight System

 

Cellular Organization of the Flight System

• The Discovery of a Central Pattern Generator in the Flight System
• Cellular Organization of the Central Pattern Generator
• The Role of Propioceptive Feedback

 

Integrating Sensory Information during Flight

• Deviation-Detecting Neurons
• Processing of Descending Information in the Flight Control Circuitry

 

7. Escape Behavior in the Crayfish

Behavioral Features and Functional Anatomy of the Escape Response

• Lateral Giant Escape
• Medial Giant Escape
• Non-Giant Escape

 

Neuronal Architecture of the Escape System

• The Neural Circuit for the Tail Flip
• Flipping Out: Flexion, Re-extension and the Swim

 

Adaptive Modulation of the Escape Response

• Restraint-Induced Inhibition
• Motivational Modulation of Escape Behavior
• Modulation of Escape Behavior by Learning

 

IV. Behavioral Plasticity

8. The Development of Learning in Songbirds

The Behavioral Analysis of Bird Song: From the Field to the Laboratory

• What's in a Song?
• The Development of Song Learning
• Auditory Feedback and Song Templates
• Sexual Dimorphism and Hormonal Regulation

 

Singing in the Brain

• The Anatomy of the Song System
• Laterality of the Song System
• Seasonal Variations and Neurogenesis
• The Anterior Forebrain Pathway

 

A Cellular Analysis of the Song System

• Song Production
• Auditory Selectivity
• Differential Developmental Timetables in the Song System
• Sexual Dimorphism in the Bird Brain

 

9. Associative Learning in Honeybees

Learning in the Natural Environment

• The Flight Out
• At the Food Source
• The Return Flight to the Hive
• Attending the Dance

 

The Special Case of Flower Learning

• The Analysis of Learning in Free-Flying Bees

 

Odor Learning in the Proboscis Extension Reflex

• Some Simple Rules of Learning
• Conditioning of the PER
• Neuronal Analysis of PER Conditioning

 

10. Learning and Memory in Simple Reflex Systems in Aplysia

Behavioral Studies in the Gill and Siphon Withdrawal Reflex

• Non-Associative Learning: Habituation, Dishabituation, and Sensitization
• Associative Learning: Classical Conditioning
• Long-Term Memory

 

Cellular Studies of Learning and Memory

• The Functional Architecture of Withdrawal Reflexes in Aplysia
• The Cellular Basis of Behavior in Aplysia
• Mechanistic Analysis of Sensitization
• Synaptic Analysis
• Biophysical Analysis
• Molecular Analysis
• Mechanistic Analysis of Classical Conditioning
• Presynaptic Factors
• Postsynaptic Factors
• A Revised Model
• Mechanistic Analysis of Long-Term Memory
• Long-Term Synaptic Facilitation in the Sensory Neurons
• Long-Term Facilitation Requires Synthesis of New Proteins
• The Role of CREB in the Molecular Induction of Long-Term Facilitation
• Intermediate-Term Memory

 

11. Molecular Genetics of Learning and Memory in Drosophila

The Genetic Dissection of Learning and Memory

• Olfactory Shock-Avoidance Learning
• Olfactory Learning: The New and Improved Model
• Mutants as a Window into Mechanism
• Physiological Links between Genes and Behavior
• The Mushroom Bodies Revisited

 

The Molecular Dissection of Memory

• cAMP-Dependent Protein Kinase in Transgenic Flies
• CREB in Transgenic Flies
• The Role of CREB in Long-Term Memory

 

12. Spatial Navigation in the Rat

Spatial Learning

• Maze Learning
• The Radial Arm Maze
• The Water Maze
• The Circular Platform Maze

 

The Role of the Hippocampus in Spatial Learning and Memory

• Anatomy of the Hippocampus
• Effects of Hippocampal Lesions on Spatial Learning

 

Cells That Code for Space

• Place Cells in the Hippocampus
• What Governs a Place Cell's Preference for a Particular Region of Space?
• What Happens in the Dark?
• Place Cells and Memory
• Spatial Dreaming
• Head Direction Cells
• Basic Features of Head Direction Cells
• Telling the Future

 

Synaptic Plasticity in the Hippocampus

• LTP in the CA1 Region of the Hippocampus
• Induction of LTP
• LTP and Spatial Learning
• Learning in the Water Maze
• Learning in the Circular Platform Maze

 

Experiments That Are Knockouts

• CaMKII Knockout Mice
• NMDA Receptor Knockout Mice

 

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Titles	Product Code	Price (USD)
Behavioral Neurobiology: The Cellular Organization of Natural Behavior	0-87893-092-2	$69.95	Purchase	Request Exam Copy
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