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what is habituation
the loss of response is retained over time
the organism has learned to ignore frequent or constant stimuli
leaving the brain to focus on occasionally changing stimuli which may be more important for stimuli
and respond to threatening stimuli
describe the process of Habituation
With repeated stimulation, the calcium ion channels in the presynaptic membrane become less responsive.
With fewer calcium ion channels open,
fewer calcium ions move into the pre-synaptic neurone when the presynaptic membrane is depolarised by an action potential.
Fewer vesicles move to and fuse with the presynaptic membrane.
Less neurotransmitter is released into the synaptic cleft by exocytosis.
With less neurotransmitter available to bind to the receptors in the postsynaptic membrane,
fewer cation channels open and fewer sodium ions enter the postsynaptic neurone.
With less depolarisation, the post-synaptic excitatory potential is not high enough to trigger an action potential
there is no response.
Why is habituation important to an animal?
Allows animals to ignore and prevent wasting energy on unimportant stimuli
so that they can concentrate on more threatening or rewarding stimuli.
It is a crucial part of the learning process.
It is important to young animals who need to learn not to respond to neutral elements around them.
individual-characteristic (learned) behaviour
adaptive change in behaviour which occurs as a result of experience
individuals will respond differently
and nuture will play a large role in this
the ease with which learning takes place is at least part purely down to genetics
species-characteristic (innate) behaviour
usually seen in a every member of species
it is a genetically determined response to a stimulus
as it occurs as specific nerve pathways are laid down in the embryo from instructions if the DNA
vitally important for species survival
selected over generations for survival value
important for short lived non-vertebrates who do not have time to learn by trial and error
memories are created in two ways, by altering:
the pattern of connections
the strength of synapses
conditioning
when an unrelated stimulus (NS) produces the same response produced by the UCS
evidence from pavlovs dogs
trial and error
when an animal associates a piece of behaviour with a reward it is more likely to be repeated
if the behaviour is associated with punishment it is less likely to be tried again
observational
learning occurs through the observation of others
i.e. parents, teachers, role model in authority
it is a form of social learningimpro
imprinting
at one receptive stage in a young animal, it identifies with another organism or object
it will then relate to this object and similar ones throughout its life
exploratory learning
when an organism explores new surroundings and learns them without ant immediate reward or punishment
the information may then be useful at another time
insight learning
based on thought and reasoning
mainly seen in mammals, particularly primates
regarded as the highest form of learning
once a problem has been solved, the solution is remembered and sometimes taught
accomodation
each time an impulse arrives at a synapse, vesicles full of neurotransmitter discharge their contents into the synaptic cleft
these vesicles can be synthesised only at a certain rate
if the synapse is used too often, all of the vesicles are discharged into the synaptic cleft
and the rate of synthesis cannot keep up
the neurones no longer respond to the stimulus - they have accomodated/ become fatigued
neural plasticity
the changes occuring in our network of neurones
often modification of synapses
