46. Sensory Systems

Give three examples of how the sensory abilities of an animal correlate with its habitat or method of finding food and mates.

Eighty-year-old Mr. Johnson was becoming slightly deaf. To test his hearing, his doctor held a vibrating tuning fork tightly against the back of Mr. Johnson's skull. This sent vibrations through the bones of the skull, setting the fluid in the cochlea in motion. Mr. Johnson could hear the tuning fork this way, but not when it was held away from the skull a few inches from his ear. The problem was probably in the _________ . (Explain your answer.)a. auditory nerve leading to the brainb. hair cells in the cochleac. bones of the middle eard. fluid of the cochlea

Compare and contrast the lateral line system of fishes with electroreception in sharks.

When you first sit down to read in a coffee shop, the surroundings seem very loud. Yet after a few minutes reading you realize you hardly notice the noise at all. Why is that?

Scientists generally think that a 'good hypothesis' is one that is reasonable and testable and inspires further research into a phenomenon. Using these criteria, explain whether Dalton's hypothesis about color vision was a good hypothesis. Was it correct?

Hold your right eye closed. With your left eye, look at the + in the image below. Starting from about two feet away, slowly bring your head closer while looking at the +. What happens to the dot when you get close to the image? What property of the eye's structure does this exercise demonstrate?

Scientists collected data on the date of onset of the menstrual cycles in a group of women who moved into a college dormitory together in the fall. The y-axis of the graph shows the mean difference (in days) between the onset of a woman's cycle and the average onset date of the rest of the women. Evaluate whether these data provide evidence for the existence of a human pheromone.

Construct a graph in which membrane potential is on the y axis and time is on the x axis. Then draw the action potentials that occur when a bitter flavor is absent, followed by the action potentials that result when a person tastes a bitter flavor.

Design experiments to test the hypothesis that electric eels are both electrogenic and electroreceptive.

SCIENTIFIC THINKING We know that sea turtle hatchlings use Earth's magnetic field to navigate. Do they also use light cues from the moon to get from the sand to the ocean waves? Outline an experiment to answer this question.

Honeybees live in social groups consisting of a queen, up to several hundred male drones, and thousands of infertile female workers. The drones mate with the queen only, and the workers protect the hive, forage, and feed and groom the queen. The health of the hive depends on the female workers performing these duties instead of reproducing. What roles do pheromones play in maintaining a functional beehive?Scientists have identified dozens of pheromones used by honeybees for communication. Which type of sensory system uses pheromones?a. mechanoreceptionb. photoreceptionc. chemoreceptiond. thermoreceptione. electroreception

Have you ever felt your ears ringing after listening to loud music? Can this permanently impair your hearing? Should manufacturers of music devices and producers of concerts be required to warn consumers? What effect might warnings have?

Honeybees live in social groups consisting of a queen, up to several hundred male drones, and thousands of infertile female workers. The drones mate with the queen only, and the workers protect the hive, forage, and feed and groom the queen. The health of the hive depends on the female workers performing these duties instead of reproducing. What roles do pheromones play in maintaining a functional beehive?Honeybees produce an alarm pheromone when their hive is molested. This pheromone stimulates the bees to protect the hive. If you were to count the number of alarm pheromone receptors in honeybee tissues, which type of bee would likely have the most—a queen, a drone, or a worker? Why?

Honeybees live in social groups consisting of a queen, up to several hundred male drones, and thousands of infertile female workers. The drones mate with the queen only, and the workers protect the hive, forage, and feed and groom the queen. The health of the hive depends on the female workers performing these duties instead of reproducing. What roles do pheromones play in maintaining a functional beehive?Why might an alarm pheromone be more effective for triggering a protective response in a hive than signals that involve other senses, such as vision or hearing?

Honeybees live in social groups consisting of a queen, up to several hundred male drones, and thousands of infertile female workers. The drones mate with the queen only, and the workers protect the hive, forage, and feed and groom the queen. The health of the hive depends on the female workers performing these duties instead of reproducing. What roles do pheromones play in maintaining a functional beehive?Researchers observed that the queen produces a pheromone that attracts both drones and workers. They hypothesized that this pheromone inhibits ovarian development in the workers, making the workers infertile. To test this hypothesis, they exposed workers to a synthetic version of the queen pheromone and then recorded their 'ovary development score.' (Higher scores indicate more fully developed ovaries.) The results are shown in the graph here. Do these results support the researchers' hypothesis? Why or why not? (*** signifies P<0.001.)