Brain, Behavior and Evolution MCQ Quiz in मल्याळम - Objective Question with Answer for Brain, Behavior and Evolution - സൗജന്യ PDF ഡൗൺലോഡ് ചെയ്യുക

Concept:

Imprinting  behaviour

• A type of behaviour that includes both learned and innate components is imprinting.
• A widely applicable definition of imprinting is that it is a learning process that restricts preferences to a specific class of objects.
• It implies some sensitive period when imprinting can occur.
• Imprinting is distinguished from other types of learning by having a sensitive period, also called a critical period, a limited developmental phase when certain behaviours can be learned.
• During the sensitive period, the young imprint on their parent and learn the basic behaviours of their species, while the parent learns to recognize its offspring.
• Two kinds of imprinting have been extensively studied:
• Filial imprinting concerns the development of a social preference of a young animal for its parents.
• The typical example is the young of ducks and geese, which instantly follow their mother almost the first day after they were hatched.
• This is often called the following response.
• The chicks of these birds imprint on any individual present at hatching time, including a human, and will follow this individual as a mother figure.
• In species with parental care, the benefits of filial imprinting are obvious because it helps an offspring to attach to its parent.
• Sexual imprinting is the process by which young animals learn the characteristics of future mates.
• The effects of this early learning process become manifest in adult mate choice.
• The social parents usually serve as templates for the young in the establishment of mate preference.
• There is also some evidence that siblings may influence the development of mate recognition.

Explanation:

• Filial imprinting concerns the development of a social preference of a young animal for its parents.
• The typical example is the young of ducks and geese, which instantly follow their mother almost the first day after they were hatched.

Henec the correct answer is option 2

Concept:

• Certain animals engage in parental care, a behavioural and evolutionary approach that entails a parental investment in the evolutionary fitness of offspring.
• In the animal kingdom, there are many different and widely distributed parenting styles.
• The way parents raise their offspring and the resources they devote to raising their young vary greatly across animal species.
• For instance, the level of care given by either sex may differ significantly, with females giving more to some species while males give more to others, or both sexes giving equally.

• In birds, bi-parental care is the most typical type.
• A mated pair shares equally in caring for and nourishing the young.
• The joint attention is advantageous to the hatchling.
• However consequently sexual dimorphism is not observed in such birds as all energy is attributed to reproductive success.

Concept:

• Maternal behaviour in the rat consists of four principal components: nursing or crouching over the young, retrieving pups to the nest, body and genital licking of pups, and nest-building. 

Explanation:

• Normally the onset of maternal behaviour occurs at parturition but studies reveal that the true onset is somewhat earlier, around 24 hours pre partum.
• The onset of maternal behaviour is hormonally determined and it is most likely that the ovarian hormone oestradiol plays a major role under the specific conditions that exist pre partum.
• The onset of maternal behaviour requires the resolution of tendencies of fear-avoidance of pups, based on their olfactory characteristics, and attraction to them and response to the pup stimuli that elicit maternal behaviour.
• In most animals this resolution occurs almost immediately but in some animals several hours of contact with the pups is required for maternal behaviour to be firmly established.
• After parturition, maternal behaviour appears to be regulated chiefly by stimuli from the pups, and hormones do not play a role apart from their role in lactogenesis.
• Size of litter, age of pups, amount of externally induced stress and other factors can affect the mother-young interaction.
• there is a period of special vulnerability to disruption of the mother-young interrelationship shortly after parturition which corresponds, we believe, to the period of transition from hormonal to non-hormonal regulation of maternal behaviour.
• Weaning and the decline of maternal behaviour is a specific phase of maternal care.
• Maternal behaviours gradually decline as avoidance behaviours increase.

Concept:

• Birds appear to have an aversion to empty eggshells.
• Upon discovery, shells are typically picked up with the bill, flown from the nest, and dropped at some distance.
• Grebes thrust their eggshells under the water, releasing them far from the nest.
• Adult hawks usually eat the shells. Many birds with precocial young desert both nest and eggshells, herding their chicks elsewhere.
• These devices for distancing chicks from the remains of the eggs attracted the attention of the pioneer ethologist Niko Tinbergen, who studied the shell-disposal behavior of Common Black-headed Gulls -- a European species that is starting to colonize eastern North America.

Concept:

• The sexual selection idea proposes that animals with distinctive physical characteristics, such as dramatic colour, enhanced size, or eye-catching adornments, may have an easier time finding mates.
• According to natural selection, such increases in mate-finding chances balance the dangers connected with the animal's higher level of environmental visibility.
• English naturalist Charles Darwin first proposed this idea in The Descent of Man (1871).

• Mutual attraction between the sexes is an important factor in reproduction.
• The males and females of many animal species are similar in size and shape except for the sexual organs and secondary sexual characteristics such as the breasts of female mammals.
• There are, however, species in which the sexes exhibit striking dimorphism (or physical difference).
• Particularly in birds and mammals, the males are often larger and stronger, more brightly coloured, or endowed with conspicuous ornamentation.
• These traits, however, make animals more visible to predators—the long plumage of male peacocks (Pavo cristatus) and birds of paradise (Paradisaea) and the enormous antlers of aged male deer (Odocoileus) are cumbersome loads in the best of cases.
• Darwin knew that natural selection could not be expected to favour the evolution of disadvantageous traits, and he was able to offer a solution to this problem.
• He proposed that such traits arise by “sexual selection,” which “depends not on a struggle for existence in relation to other organic beings or to external conditions but on a struggle between the individuals of one sex, generally the males, for the possession of the other sex.

Hence the correct answer is option 3.​

Concept:

• Hamilton's rule is a central theorem of inclusive fitness (kin selection) theory and predicts that social behavior evolves under specific combinations of relatedness, benefit, and cost.

1.  altruism (net loss of direct fitness) occurs even when sociality is facultative,
2.  in most cases, altruism is under positive selection via indirect fitness benefits that exceed direct fitness costs and
3.  social behavior commonly generates indirect benefits by enhancing the productivity or survivorship of kin.

• A simple but powerful formalization of inclusive fitness theory is provided by Hamilton's rule.
•  This states that a gene for any social action will undergo selection when the sum of indirect fitness (rb) and direct fitness (c) exceeds zero, where r is the relatedness of the social actor and recipient and c and b are the changes brought about by the social action in the offspring numbers of, respectively, the actor and the recipient.
• From Hamilton's rule follow the well-known conditions for the four possible types of social action as defined by the signs of c and b, namely cooperation or mutual benefit (+, +), altruism (−, +), selfishness (+, −) and spite (−, −).
•  Specifically, in its most celebrated application, Hamilton's rule states that altruism (net loss of direct fitness) is selected if rb – c > 0. By identifying this condition, inclusive fitness theory solved the problem of altruism.
• Because of its grounding in fundamental theory, its incorporation of the four types of social action, and its universal taxonomic scope, the theory provides the best current basis for a unified understanding of social evolution.
• For example, it enables conflict within family groups and intragenomic conflict to be understood in the same terms.

- Inclusive fitness = direct fitness + indirect fitness    

- Altruism is favored when rB > C or rB-C > 0,

where r= relatedness; B= benefit to recipient, C= cost to the altruist 

here in the question we need to calculate the value of B where r is 0.25,

putting these values in the equation above we have,

0.25 X B > C, This implies that   1/4 X B > C OR B > 4 C, thus when  fitness benefit is four times the cost of care  the alleles that cause uncles to care for nephews will spread

Hence the correct answer is option 4

Concept:

• The ratio of variance in mating success between males and females is a concept used to describe the distribution of reproductive success in a population and how it differs between sexes.
• This variation in reproductive success can be quantified by measuring the variance in mating success within each sex.
• The ratio of variance is calculated by dividing the variance in male mating success (V_m) by the variance in female mating success (V_f).
• The ratio of variance can have different values depending on the mating system of a species:
• Male-Biased Mating System (V_m > V_f) -
  • When the variance in male mating success is greater than the variance in female mating success, it suggests a male-biased mating system.
  • This often occurs in species with polygynous mating systems, where a few dominant males have access to multiple females, leading to high variation in male reproductive success.
  • This can be driven by competition among males for access to mates.
• Female-Biased Mating System (V_f > V_m) -
  • When the variance in female mating success is greater than the variance in male mating success, it indicates a female-biased mating system.
  • This is commonly observed in species with polyandrous mating systems, where females mate with multiple males.
  • Some females have a higher probability of mating success and can choose from a pool of available mates.
• Equal Mating System (V_m = V_f) -
  • When the variance in male mating success is similar to the variance in female mating success, it suggests an equal mating system.
  • This can occur in monogamous mating systems, where individuals form long-term pair bonds and have relatively equal access to mates.
  • It can also occur in certain cases of cooperative breeding or when sexual selection is weak.

Important Points

• Polygyny - refers to a mating system in which males mate with multiple females.
• Polyandry - refers to a mating system in which females mate with multiple males.
• Monogamy - refers to a mating system where individuals form long-term pair bonds with a single mate.

Explanation:

Species P - 

• The ratio of variance in male mating success to variance in female mating success is strongly male biased (V_m > V_f), which indicates that some males in species P are more successful in mating than others, resulting in high variation in male mating success.
• This is consistent with a polygynous mating system where dominant males have access to multiple females.

Species Q - 

• Here, the ratio of variance in female mating success to variance in male mating success is strongly female biased (V_f > V_m), suggesting that some females in species Q are more successful in mating than others.
• This is characteristic of a polyandrous mating system, where females have multiple male partners.

Species R - 

• The ratio of variance in male mating success to variance in female mating success is similar (V_m = V_f), indicating that there is relatively equal variation in male and female mating success.
• This pattern is consistent with a monogamous mating system, where individuals form long-term pair bonds and have equal access to mates.

Hence, the correct answer is option 3.

The correct answer is Option 3 i.e. Innate behaviour.

Key Points

Innate behavior:

• This is behavior that is genetically programmed and does not require learning or prior experience. 
• Innate behaviors are often instinctual and are performed in response to a specific stimulus or situation.
• Examples of innate behaviors include reflexes, like blinking or withdrawing a hand from a hot surface, and fixed action patterns, like the nest-building behavior of birds.

Hint

Habituation:

• This is a type of learned behavior where an organism becomes desensitized to a stimulus after repeated exposure.
• For example, if a bird is constantly exposed to a loud noise that poses no threat to it, it may eventually stop reacting to the noise altogether.

Imprinting:

• This is a type of learning that occurs during a critical period of development, where an animal forms an attachment to an object or individual.
• Imprinting is often seen in birds, where the chicks will imprint on the first moving object they see after hatching, which is usually their mother.
• This attachment is important for the chick's survival, as it ensures that it follows its mother and learns important behaviors and survival skills.

Operant conditioning:

• This is a type of learning where behavior is modified through consequences, such as rewards or punishments.
• If a behavior is followed by a positive consequence, like a treat or praise, the behavior is more likely to be repeated in the future.
• If a behavior is followed by a negative consequence, like a scolding or time-out, the behavior is less likely to be repeated in the future.
• Operant conditioning is often used in animal training, where desired behaviors are reinforced with rewards.

Therefore, the correct answer is Option 3.

The correct answer is Option 1 i.e.Low frequency with narrow bandwidth.

Key Points

• The Acoustic Adaptation Hypothesis is a theory in evolutionary biology that suggests that animals' vocalizations have evolved to adapt to the acoustic properties of their environment.
• Specifically, the hypothesis proposes that animals adjust the frequency and amplitude of their vocalizations to optimize their transmission and reception in different acoustic environments.
• The "Acoustic Adaptation Hypothesis" suggests that bird songs are selected to maximize broadcast range and minimize degradation due to factors such as background noise and vegetation.
• Therefore, bird songs in different habitats may vary in their frequency and bandwidth to suit the acoustic conditions of the environment.
• In dense forests, there are more obstacles for sound waves to travel through, such as leaves, branches, and tree trunks, which can absorb or scatter sound.
• This reduces the broadcast range of the bird songs and makes it harder for receivers to detect and locate the source of the sound.
• To overcome this challenge, birds singing in dense forests may use low-frequency sounds that can penetrate the foliage and reflect off the ground to increase the effective broadcast range.
• Furthermore, since there may be other sources of noise in dense forest environments, such as rustling leaves and flowing water, birds may also use narrow bandwidths to improve the signal-to-noise ratio of their songs.
• Narrow bandwidths can help to filter out unwanted noise and make the bird's song more discernible to receivers.
• Therefore, the combination of features that is likely to be shown by birds singing in dense forests is low frequency with narrow bandwidth.
• This combination is well suited to the acoustic conditions of the environment and can help birds to effectively communicate with potential mates and defend their territory despite the challenging acoustic environment.

Therefore, the correct answer is Option 1.

The correct answer is Option 1 i.e.A syndrome

Concept:

• The scientific study of animal behavior examines how animals engage with their biotic and abiotic environments and how they react to different stimuli.
• Aspects of biology, psychology, and ecology are all included in this multidisciplinary subject.
• The study of animal behavior is crucial because it enables researchers to comprehend the complexity of animal life, including how animals interact, adapt, learn, and reproduce.
• Different levels of animal behavior can be examined, from individual behaviors to social interactions and ecological processes.
• The following are some of the major topics in animal behavior research: