Orienting reaction in invertebrates

Abstract

Changes in motor and vegetative indices in freshwater crayfish during sudden changes in the environmental situation are described. The results suggest that freshwater crayfish characterized by a sedentary lifestyle nevertheless constantly control the milieu in which they find themselves, by recording diverse changes in its parameters. Apparently the physiological nature of the reactions to "neutral" stimuli issuing from the milieu, is, in representatives of the higher invertebrates, very similar to that of the higher mammals, and may be described using the concepts of the orienting reflex and activity of an investigatory character which follows it. The question is posed in this context of the possibility of the appearance in this situation of emotional reactions of the animals investigated.

The cardiac response of the crabChasmagnathus granulatusas an index of sensory perception

“…(Graham, 1979;Pavlov, 1923;Zernicki, 1987). Thus, relatively 'neutral' unexpected external stimuli might trigger in the crustacean brain some processing of the information about the 'novel' stimulus and its possible consequences (Shuranova and Burmistrov, 1996;Shuranova et al, 2006).…”

Picrotoxin but not bicuculline partially abolishes the cardio-inhibitory responses induced by visual stimulation in the crab Neohelice granulata

“…Several attempts have been made to explain the possible functional role of this transient cardiac inhibition in response to external stimuli because its prevalence across invertebrates and vertebrates leads to the assumption that it has a universal adaptive function. The main explanations provided include the following: a) decelerative heart rate (HR) changes have been identified as indexes of emotion in rabbits as well as in humans [16,35]; b) cardiac inhibition has been associated with attentional phenomena in vertebrates [22,31,44] and, accordingly, with the orienting response in invertebrates [48]; c) CIR have been described as a component of the "death-feigning behavior" in decapod crustaceans [41] and of the "concealing behavior" in vertebrates [51]; d) a reflexive drop in the HR may be caused by blood redistribution from vegetative to locomotor muscles in preparation for flight [34]; and e) CIR may represent an example of the so-called "startle-induced bradycardia" of many animal species to rapid and intense sensory stimuli [7,23,24,32]. However, the mechanisms underlying CIR are still unknown.…”

The Invisible Side of Emotive Cinema

“…Georgian neurophysiologist I. S. Beritashvili, who practiced electrophysiological techniques, while Pavlov was not interested in this 'wire' physiology(Shuranova 1996in Abramson et al 1996.Beritashvili (1947) introduced the concept of 'psycho-nervous' activity. He studied reflexive and complex behavior, the ontogenetic and phylogenetic development of specific types of behavior, and the dependence of behavior on context(Abramson et al 1996, 21).…”