MCB 419 - Exam II study guide

Lecture 9: Area-restricted search in C. elegans

  1. Understand the general principles associated with area-restricted search (ARS) behavior and why it is useful to the animal.
  2. Be familiar with the experimental paradigm that was used to measure ARS behavior in C. elegans and be able to predict what would happen to the high-angle turn frequency under different conditions.
  3. Know the functional roles of glutamate and dopamine in C. elegans ARS behavior.
  4. Given a schematic diagram of the proposed neural model of ARS control, be able to answer questions about the functional role of various components.
  5. Understand how neuromodulation can help organize behavior on multiple time scales.

Lecture 10: Beer's artificial insect

  1. Given a schematic diagram of a cockroach body, be able to identify stable and unstable patterns of leg placement.
  2. Given a diagram of an individual leg controller circuit, be able to answer questions about the functional role of various neurons and their interactions.
  3. Understand the role of reciprocal inhibition in coordinating motor activity between neighboring legs.
  4. Be able to list four behaviors associated with Beer's artifial insect and understand the behavioral choice hierarchy in Beer's model.
  5. Given a block diagram of Beer's behavioral choice hierarchy, be able to identify 'condition-action' pairs.
  6. Be able to translate between a Beer-style block diagram of behavioral choice and the corresponding NetLogo code.

Lecture 11: Action selection, vertebrate brain organization, subsumption architecture

  1. Given an action-selection strategy coded in NetLogo using a combination of 'Test' blocks, be able to identify which 'action' would be selected under different conditions.
  2. In the diagram of a 'primitive vertebrate' brain (from the reading by Allman, p. 70), be able to identify the following regions: telencephalon, diencephalon, midbrain, hindbrain, olfactory bulb, optic tectum, thalamus, hypothalamus.
  3. In the diagram of a shark brain (presented in lecture 12), be able to identify: telencephalon, diencephalon, midbrain, hindbrain, spinal cord, olfactory bulb, optic tectum.
  4. In the diagram of a 'generalized vertebrate brain' (from the reading by Prescott, p. 10) be able to identify: telencephalon, diencephalon, midbrain, hindbrain, spinal cord, tectum, thalamus, hypothalamus, olfactory bulb, amygdala.
  5. Understand the distinction between serial (horizontal) and parallel (vertical) decomposition in robot control architectures.
  6. Understand the major features of Brook's subsumption architecture.
  7. Be able to provide an example of the hierarchical organization of behavior based on the herring-gull diagram by Baerends.
  8. For the rat defense system, be able to match different types of sensory stimuli and motor reponses with the corresponding level of brain processing (e.g. spinal cord, hindbrain, midbrain/hypothalamus, thalamus, cortex)
  9. Be able to describe functional parallels between the rat defense system and the subsumption architecture.
  10. Understand the role of the amygdala in fear conditioning and how that system differs from midbrain processing of species-specific stimuli.
  11. Understand the proposed role of the basal ganglia in action selection

Lecture 12: Vertebrate neuroethology; toad predator/prey system

  1. Know the 'conditions' associated with various prey handling actions (orient, approach, fixate, snap) in the toad.
  2. Know how the orienting response varies with stimulus length for worm, anti-worm and square stimuli.
  3. Be able to describe/recognize response properties of a) retinal ganglion cells, b) thalamic-pretectal, and c) tectal neurons to worm, anti-worm and square stimuli.
  4. Understand the role of lateral inhibition in center-surround receptive field organization and in enhancing spatial differences in stimulus intensity.
  5. Understand the role of thalamic inhibition in shaping the overall behavioral response; be able to describe the behavioral effects of lesioning the pathway from thalamus to tectum.
  6. Given a diagram of the proposed neural architecture mediating visuomotor behaviors (Carew, Fig 4.15) be able to answer questions about the functional role of various components.

Lecture 13: Associative learning, honeybee foraging

  1. Under what conditions does 'learning and memory' convey a benefit relative to 'genetically hard-wired' processing?
  2. Know the meaning of 'Hebbian' learning and be able to give an example of the sorts of associations that might be useful for an animal to learn using this mechanism
  3. Understand the division of labor in honeybees and the sorts of things that foragers need to learn and remember.
  4. Be familiar with the general anatomical organization of the bee brain
  5. Understand experiments on associative color learning, including time course of retention and time window for learning.
  6. Know the classical conditiong terminology (US, UR, CS, CR) and its specific application to the proboscis extension reflex.
  7. Be able to compare and contrast associative color learning and the proboscis extension reflex (PER).

Lecture 14: Neural basis of PER; associative learning algorithms, delta rule

  1. Know the different pathways for the conditioned and unconditioned reflex in PER, and the role of the VUMmx1 neuron.
  2. Understand the sigmoid 'decision' function for choosing a flower color and how the steepness of the transition influences the tradeoff between exploration and exploitation.
  3. Understand how the 'delta rule' can be used to generate 'expected rewards' based on 'actual rewards' and explain the role of the learning-rate parameter, epsilon.
  4. Understand the basic principles involved in the Montague et al. simulation of bee foraging.
  5. Be able to give an example of risk aversion in honeybees.