INSTRUCTOR: Professor Jeannette Yen, office: A116 Cherry Emerson, 404 385 1596
email: jeannette.yen@biology.gatech.edu Office Hours: TT 11-12, or email for appt.
TEXT: Sensory Ecology: how organisms acquire and respond to information, D. Dusenbery, W.H. Freeman and Company, 1992.
SUPPL. TEXTS: Principles of Animal Communication, Bradbury and Vehrencamp, Sinauer Associates, Inc, MA, 1998.
This course consists of quantitative analyses of communication channels from signal structure, generation, propagation, detection, to the animal response and the consequent effects on ecological interactions. We will focus on the physical basis of signal propagation, perception and information acquisition and ask how this knowledge helps us understand ecological problems. The approach will be broadly comparative, examining visual, auditory, mechanosensory, and olfactory sensory modalities across a range of vertebrate and invertebrate species in aquatic and terrestrial habitats.
SYLLABUS:
|
Week |
Reading |
Lecture TOPICS |
In-class discussion topic |
|
1 |
Ch. 1, 2 Handouts |
Introduction. Copepod sensory ecology |
Hypothesis testing. Fluid mechanoreception |
|
2 |
Ch. 4, 5 |
Stimulus Transmission |
Signal detection |
|
3 |
Ch. 11, 13 |
Communication and Signal Evolution |
Presentation of outline |
|
4 |
Ch. 9, Handouts |
Sound Perception |
Sound production and ear design |
|
5 |
Ch. 12, Selected articles |
Mechanoreception. Autocommunication. |
Case studies [insect, fish, frog, cetacean] |
|
6 |
Ch. 14, Handouts |
Electroreception |
Case studies [paddlefish, shark]. Spatial goals |
|
7 |
Ch. 10, Handouts |
Neurobiology of mechanoreception |
Crustacean neurobiology. Molecular sensory transduction. |
|
8 |
Ch. 3 |
Information content |
Sensitivity: signal/noise. |
|
9 |
Ch 7, Handouts |
Olfaction/ gustation. Coding mechanisms |
Break. Chemical signaling by crab, moth. |
|
10 |
Ch. 15, Sel. articles |
Orientation and transport |
Case studies: lobster, copepod, nudibranch. |
|
11 |
Ch. 8, Handouts |
Light Signaling and detection |
Ideal visual receptor. Case studies: stomatopod, |
|
12 |
Handouts |
Neurobiological basis of visual perception |
Costs and constraints. Case studies: spider, |
|
13 |
Ch. 16, 17 Articles |
Search and Guiding |
Final presentations |
|
14 |
Selected articles |
Final presentations |
Final presentations |
|
15 |
Selected articles |
Final presentations |
Break |
|
16 |
Handouts, final paper |
Design Rules |
Optimal sensor |