Tim Jenkins Brain Story 13 “The Thirsty Fly” Dr. Kroger Psy 375 11-16-16
In Weiner’s “The Thirsty Mind” article (2014), the neurostructures of a fruit fly were analyzed as it related to “thirst”. Kent Berridge has spent decades of his life devoted to the biological reward circuitry that exist. Berridge’s theory of rewards was broken down into 3 subcategories; liking, wanting and learning (Weiner, 2014). Different species have similar responses to a sweet taste: sticking their tongues out, which Berridge defines loosely as liking (Weiner, 2014). “Wanting” is the pursuit of what the organism likes; while the associations regarding their likes is learning (Weiner, 2014).
Berridge’s research has been received with varying levels of acceptance.
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To accelerate the dehydration of the flies, the researchers put in a Drierite layer, which is used to pull moisture out of safes and closed spaces. After hours of being dehydrated, the flies were thoroughly thirsty and went “running” to the moisture. This rehydration served as ample reward to fire circuitry in the brain associated with rewards. There appears to be 130 neurons that release dopamine which feed signals to the mushroom body (similar to our hippocampus). These fire an “Ah water” signal. There are other similar yet distinct circuits for other things like sugar or even remembering the taste of water which is innate; it’s built in their antennae. This explains the “wanting” when the fly enters the wet tube after being thirsty. The “liking” is observed with the pickpocket 28 neurons telling the proboscis to react to the presence of sugar water. And the “learning” is when the fly remembers its choices when it was thirsty to get to the wet tube as it remembers the taste of water. The researchers are getting a finite glimpse into our own reward systems through flies; even at 2 neurons within the flies. This research has established the nuts and bolts of the fly’s brain. We can now make the flies lose control and become ravenously hungry or thirsty because we know their circuitry so well. These finding are about to be presented to President Obama as part of the BRAIN
This experiment was conducted to determine whether or not Callosobruchus maculatus, or bean beetles, had a bean color preference for oviposition choice. Oviposition is the process of a female insect laying her eyes on plant parts and other materials, which can be influenced by many factors. The bean beetle eggs are opaque and clear, which allowed us to test the hypothesis that C. maculatus prefer the darker red Adzuki beans over the white Black-eyed peas for oviposition choice. Two different colored bean types were used, the red Adzuki beans and the white Black-eyed peas. We placed three female and two male bean beetles in each petri dish, with 55 of each bean type randomly placed in the dish, for a week.
In this experiment, Pill bugs were exposed to different environments within a closed space and observed to determine which environment they preferred. The four different environments tested consisted of flowers, dirt, grass, and an empty space. Ten pill bugs were placed within the shoe box and observed for a total of 15 minutes to determine what environment the bugs preferred. The independent variables were the different conditions in each section of the shoe box, while the dependent variable was the behavior the pill bugs displayed. Throughout the experiment, the control variable was the empty section of the shoe box.
Aristotle, a famous philosopher, once said, “The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet” (Brainyquote.com). The ‘bitter roots’ he is talking about are quarterlies. A quarterly is a test given to students at the end of each marking period to allow students to show what they have learned for that marking period. Each major subject including math, science, english, and history, are required to administer the tests. Understandably, not many people are familiar with this test because they are actually very uncommon.
Anne McClintock wrote her essay “Gonad the Barbarian and the Venus Flytrap: Portraying the female and male orgasm” to examine pornography and how it has changed throughout history and its effects on how women perform as sexual beings. McClintock focuses on the various roles of pornography such as its emphasis on voyeurism, pleasure, and the male ego. She wants her readers to know that women are still not represented in pornography to satisfy their own desires, but they are there to cater to men and their subconscious. I will analyze how McClintock argues that due to the history of sexism towards women, the roles that men and women have in pornography are inherently different because of the societal belief that women are only seen as objects of sexual desire and are solely there to satisfy the male audience.
The Fly is a science fiction short story which is written by George Langelaan. It was “was published in the June 1957 issue of Playboy magazine. It was first filmed in 1958, and then again in 1986.”(Wikipedia) This story got some film-makers’ attention such as Neumann and Cronenberg. The story interpreted differently in each director’s film.
Research to date, however, casts doubt on the validity of
Through concise analysis of research papers and other experiments conducted elsewhere, the final conclusion of this lab was supported. All in all, the inquiry experiment allowed the accomplishment of the goal of identifying one of the main reasons why fruit flies eat rotten fruit. Introduction: Drosophila (a model research organism) melanogaster (black abdomen) is the common fruitfly. The lab required the usage of fruit flies as they are a commonly used organism in many experiments. The portion before the inquiry lab utilized the usage of different foods to determine exactly which food the flies would experience more of an attraction towards.
This was a box designed to hold animals and giving the animal contained access to food after carrying out a certain response. Using this procedure of reinforcement the animal learned to perform the response to get food as it associates this required behaviour with the reward of food. (Toates, F., 2010, p. 164) This principle can be applied to strengthen any behaviours whether it be positive or negative, and this research is an efficient technique used widely by many
Informative Analysis of The Human Fly The Human Fly by T.C. Boyle tells the story of a man who wants to be a famous superhero. The text deals with morality, mental illness and loss. This essay demonstrates an analysis of how these elements are interpreted and describes how the life lessons of this text can be applied to reality.
Notable plant scientist, Fred Sack, commented that plants cannot be capable of learning because “the word ‘learning’ should be reserved for animals” while this experiment portrayed their adaptation (Pollan). Because of the criticism about the language in Gagliano’s paper, the hypothesis seems to remain unconfirmed. It appears to me no premise substantially disconfirms the conclusion of “Animal-Like Learning in Mimosa Pudica”, only the disagreement among professionals over what constitutes learning, if anything, in sans-brain life forms. Internally coherent, the main flaw of “Animal-Like Learning in Mimosa Pudica” is in the language used to describe the phenomenons witnessed in the experiment, which would compromise it’s external consistency. Gagliano’s research and idea appears fruitful in many aspects.
The book Mosquitoland is about a troublesome young teenage girl who has a lot of family issues and was written by David Arnold. It was written in first person point of view by a sixteen year old named Mary Iris Malone or Mim Malone for short. The book starts off with Mary living with her father and new stepmother after her parent’s divorce. As a teenager, these major life changes do affect your behavior and emotions big time! Shortly after her parents split, Mim finds out that her mother is sick.
Parcc Essay After reading the two passages, "Red Cranes", and, "The Firefly Hunt", it is clearly presented that the authors of each stories, developed the characters in clever differential ways. Although the approach was very different, the characteristics within these characters were quite similar. As goes to say, each author had their own perspectives through introducing each characters intentions and feelings. In the story, "The Red Crane", written by Jacey Choy, the approach to develop Choy's characters was very subtle.
Lord of the Flies, Lord of the Weather William Golding, awarded the prestigious Nobel Prize in Literature in 1983, the James Tait Black Memorial Prize in 1979, the coveted Booker Prize in 1980, wrote Lord of the Flies (1954), a dystopian novel about a group of British boys who survive a plane crash and are forced to live on their own without parents. William Golding uses weather to represent the loss of sanity and the destruction of civilization throughout the island, as well as, weather in the real world representing people 's mental states. He does this by relating each type of weather to an action that goes on in the book, or a mood Ralph goes through. Golding uses pathetic fallacy, which is the use of inanimate things to demonstrate a feeling,
(iii) Non-Associative Procedural Learning in the Aplysia (a) Habituation Invertebrates can be particularly useful for the analysis of the neuronal basis of behaviour. The sea slug, Aplysia californica has a nervous system comprising about 20 000 neurones, has been used by Eric Kandel and his colleagues to study learning and memory. Non-associative learning in Aplypia involves habituation and sensitisation in the gill-withdrawal reflex. A jet of water squirted on the siphon causes the gill to retract ( fig. 32 ).
I'm so sick of these flies They've been here for a while They'll always buzz up in your ear Whenever you walk by And to you it really is no bother But they are bugging me