Why Behaviour?

Fritz Francisco | Berlin Science Week 2021 | Why Behaviour? | Humboldt University, Berlin

Berlin Science Week 2021

WHY BEHAVIOUR?

Fritz Francisco
10.11.2021

Video Credit to Eduardo Sampaio

Humboldt University Berlin | Science of Intelligence | Bierbach & Romanczuk Lab

Introduction

Henri Cartier-Bresson, Place de l'Europe. Gare Saint Lazare. Paris, France. 1932 © Henri Cartier-Bresso | Magnum Photos

Introduction

C. Darwin, On the Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals. London: John Murray, 1872. P.59, fig. 10 'Cat in an affectionate frame of mind. By Mr. Wood'. source: Wikimedia

Introduction

Dyer et al. 2021, J Comp Physiol A/The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

"[...] it is thinkable that the investigation of the behaviour of migratory birds and carrier pigeons may some day lead to the understanding of some physical process which is not yet known, [...]"
A. Einstein (1949)

Introduction

Konrad Lorenz (left) & Nikolaas Tinbergen (right) (1978); source: Wikimedia

Introduction

Bee Communication

Karl von Frisch
source: Wikimedia

Four Questions/Level of Analysis & Instinct

Niko Tinbergen
© Lary Shaffer

Imprinting

Konrad Lorenz
© LIFE magazin

Part I

What is behaviour?

Tinbergen (1952)

Part I: What is behaviour?

Hartmann N.: Teleologisches Denken, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1964

©BBC | Japanese pufferfish (Torquigener albomaculosus)

"The tragedy of man is that of somebody who is starving and sitting at a richly laden table but does not reach out with his hand, because he cannot see what is right in front of him. For the real world has inexhaustible splendour, the real life is full of meaning and abundance, where we grasp it, it is full of miracles and glory."

Nicolai Hartmann (1962)

Part I: What is behaviour?

Part I: What is behaviour?

Part I: What is behaviour?

©Sampaio, Eduardo, et al. "Octopuses punch fishes during collaborative interspecific hunting events." Ecology (2020).

Part I: What is behaviour?

Part II

How to measure behaviour?

Part II: How to measure behaviour?

Karl von Frisch (1952)
Credit: Jack Garofalo/Paris Match Archive/Getty

Part II: How to measure behaviour?

Mather, Jennifer A., Ulrike Griebel, and Ruth A. Byrne. "Squid dances: an ethogram of postures and actions of Sepioteuthis sepioidea squid with a muscular hydrostatic system." Marine and Freshwater Behaviour and Physiology 43.1 (2010): 45-61.

Stevenson, Paul A., et al. "Octopamine and experience-dependent modulation of aggression in crickets." Journal of Neuroscience 25.6 (2005): 1431-1441.

Slater, Peter JB, and Slater Peter James Bramwell. Essentials of animal behaviour. Cambridge University Press, 1999.

Anderson, David J., and Pietro Perona. "Toward a science of computational ethology." Neuron 84.1 (2014): 18-31.

Part II: How to measure behaviour?

Conditioned Reflex
"Classical Conditioning"
Ivan Pavlov, 1897

Puzzle Box
"Law of Effect"
Edward Thorndike, 1898

Skinner Box
"Opperant Conditioning"
B. F. Skinner, 1974

source: Wikimedia

Part II: How to measure behaviour?

Pereira, Talmo D., Joshua W. Shaevitz, and Mala Murthy. "Quantifying behavior to understand the brain." Nature neuroscience 23.12 (2020): 1537-1549.

Amazon Molly, Poecilia formosa
Fritz Francisco, Alessandra Escurra, David Bierbach & Pawel Romanczuk, in prep.

Part II: How to measure behaviour?

Arapaima gigas - Fritz Francisco, Alessandra Escurra & David Bierbach

Part II: How to measure behaviour?

Graving, Jacob M., and Iain D. Couzin. "VAE-SNE: a deep generative model for simultaneous dimensionality reduction and clustering." BioRxiv (2020).

Part II: How to measure behaviour?

Part II: How to measure behaviour?

Thigmotaxis: movement of an organism toward or away from any object that provides a mechanical stimulus.

Part II: How to measure behaviour?

Strandburg-Peshkin, Ariana, et al. "Habitat and social factors shape individual decisions and emergent group structure during baboon collective movement." Elife 6 (2017): e19505.

Credit: Jakob Gübel

Part II: How to measure behaviour?

Francisco, Fritz A., Paul Nührenberg, and Alex Jordan. "High-resolution, non-invasive animal tracking and reconstruction of local environment in aquatic ecosystems." Movement ecology 8.1 (2020): 1-12.