Nervous System
These are the individual cells that make up the nervous system and transmit electrical impulses.
What are neurons?
This hormone signals the brain that the body needs more nutrients and encourages an animal to seek food.
What is ghrelin?
This biological rhythm repeats approximately once every 24 hours.
What is a circadian rhythm?
A behavior an animal performs without needing to learn it is called this.
What is an innate/instinctual behavior?
This type of learning occurs when an animal becomes less responsive to a harmless stimulus after repeated exposure.
What is habituation?
This part of the nervous system includes the brain and spinal cord.
What is the central nervous system?
This nervous system is known as the body's “fight or flight” system.
What is the sympathetic nervous system?
This German term literally means “time giver” and refers to an external cue that resets an animal's biological clock.
What is a zeitgeber?
This is the simplest form of instinctual behavior and includes reactions such as the startle reflex.
What is a reflex?
This type of learning causes an animal to become more responsive to a repeated or important stimulus.
What is sensitization?
This type of receptor detects pressure and temperature and can trigger a reflex.
What are nociceptors?
This nervous system is known as the “rest and digest” system.
What is the parasympathetic nervous system?
This structure acts as the master timekeeper in vertebrate animals.
What is the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN)?
This term describes an instinctual behavior that continues in the same pattern even when the environment changes.
What is a fixed-motor pattern?
Pavlov's dogs learned to associate this object with food.
What is a bell?
This is the process of physically detecting a stimulus, such as touching or smelling something.
What is sensation?
This is the optimal state an animal tries to maintain in order to stay alive.
What is homeostasis?
An animal that is primarily active at dawn and dusk is described by this term.
What is crepuscular?
This scientist discovered that herring gull chicks were especially attracted to red stimuli on their parents' beaks.
Who is Nikolaas Tinbergen?
This type of conditioning occurs when an animal learns that performing a behavior leads to a particular outcome.
What is operant conditioning?
This is the brain's interpretation of sensory information based on experience, memory, and learning.
What is perception?
In the HPA axis, this hormone is produced by the adrenal glands during stress.
What is cortisol?
This field of science studies biological rhythms.
What is chronobiology?
This scientist studied geese and their fixed-motor behavior of retrieving eggs.
Who is Konrad Lorenz?
This is the ability of neural connections to change based on an animal's experiences and is a foundation of learning.
What is synaptic plasticity?