Summary
Feeding behavior and the effect of its occurrence on other, unrelated behaviors were studied in the carnivorous marine gastropodPleurobranchaea calif arnica. The threshold of the feeding response is low and stable: it does not change in a circadian fashion (Fig. 1); it does not change during different behavioral states such as mating (Table 4) and quiescence (“sleep” Table 5); the threshold does not change following aversive electric shock to the oral veil (Table 1); and it does not change with repeated application of food stimuli (Fig. 2). In the present paper only two physiological variables were found to elevate the feeding response threshold; excessive mechanical stimulation (Figs. 3, 4) and satiation with food (Fig. 5).
The interaction between feeding behavior and other, unrelated behaviors was examined using a choice paradigm, i.e., simultaneous presentation of the releasing stimuli for two different behaviors. When the stimulus for feeding behavior (squid homogenate) is presented at the same time as the stimulus for righting (inversion), feeding occurs and righting is suppressed (Tables 2, 3). Similarly, feeding dominates withdrawal of the head, mating and quiescence. Neither mating nor quiescence exerts a reciprocal suppressive effect on feeding (Tables 4, 5), and hence in these cases, at least, the dominance of feeding behavior is unilateral. We conclude that behavioral acts inPleurobranchaea are organized hierarchically, and that the feeding behavior occupies a relatively dominant position in the behavioral hierarchy.
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Supported by NIH grant NS 09050 to W. J. D. and Postdoctoral Fellowships from the Helen Hay Whitney Foundation and NIH to G. J. M.
We thank Kathryn B. Davis for technical assistance and Melody V. S. Siegler for reading the manuscript.
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Davis, W.J., Mpitsos, G.J. & Pinneo, J.M. The behavioral hierarchy of the molluskPleurobranchaea . J. Comp. Physiol. 90, 207–224 (1974). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00701474
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00701474