Neuroethology: Nerve Cells and the Natural Behavior of Animals

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Jeffrey M. Camhi, "Neuroethology: Nerve Cells and the Natural Behavior of Animals"
Sinauer Associates Inc | 1984 | ISBN: 0878930752 | 432 pages | Djvu | 13,7 MB

Summary: A slightly more serious review
Rating: 4

This book introduces basic concepts in neuroethyoloy (and in brain
science), like the auditory system, visual system, time/space
perception in an orderly and concise manner. Each subject is explained
by investigating the relevant research on a certain animal (lots of
bugs & bats!). The only setback to the book is its age: some
research has lost relevance. And, yes, Prof. Camhi certainly brings the
subject to life by means of a great deal of enthusiasm. Also, here's an
author who's actually a very nice person in real life....:-)

Neuroethology is the biological approach to the study of the
neural basis of behavior. Thus, the focus is on the role of the nervous
system in behavior, but the perspective is that which is called
'ethological'. The ethological approach emphasizes the causation, the
development, the evolution, and the function of behavior and
neuroethologists seek to understand this in terms of neural circuits.
Neuroethology is the study of natural behavior, which, in the older
scientific literature, was called "instinctive behavior" or "innate
behavior". Neuroethologists base their studies on behavioral studies
that often are done in the field on the animal's own turf.

The neural approaches used in neuroethology are as diverse as the field
of neuroscience itself. Thus, some neuroethologists use behavioral
methods only to ask profound questions about the organization of
underlying neural circuits. Some use intracellular recording techniques
to probe one cell at a time in some neural circuit that is involved in
a particular behavior. Some use neuroanatomical techniques, some use
comparative methods to look at how nervous systems differ from one
species to another. Molecular methods are used to explore phylogenetic
relationships. All sorts of molecular and cellular methods are used to
explore neural connections and to uncover diversity and specialization
of nerve cells. Computer modeling is used to predict behavior of neural
circuits.

The subjects in neuroethology are as diverse as the animal kingdom.
Neuroethologists are interested in comparative aspects of behavior and
in the evolution of the nervous system. The comparative method is used
in many studies. A typical assemblage of neuroethologists is likely to
talk about jellyfish and corals, sea squirts and sea slugs, insects and
insectivores, slugs and bugs, birds and bats, frogs or toads, and even
mammals. Some may be interested in behavioral processes, not a
particular group, others in neural computation and algorithms, not any
particular system. Somehow the field holds together by the mutual
attraction of neuroethologists to like-minded concern for diversity of
animal nervous systems and their role in behavior.


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