Behavioral Genetics and Animal Science - Genetics and the Behavior of Domestic Animals - page 14

Ethology and Behaviorism Provide Tools to Study Emotions
and Behaviors
Both the behaviorists and the ethologists avoided the question of whether or
not animals had emotions. They both developed a strictly functional approach
to the motivations of behavior ( deWaal, 2011 ). Until relatively recently, most
behaviorists and ethologists did not get involved with neuroscience. A review
of the neuroscience literature makes it clear that emotional systems in the
brain drive behavior. The research tools provided by the disciplines of both
ethology and behaviorism are essential to further our understanding of animal
behavior. Ethology provides the methodology for studying animals in complex
environments. Bateson (2012) discusses the need to study freely moving
animals. Animal behavior is more complex in natural settings or on a farm.
Lawrence (2008) reviewed the behavior literature and determined that
domestic animal research was changing from studying the basic biology of
domestic animal behavior to studying animal behavior related to specific
animal welfare issues. Lawrence (2008) warns that too narrow a focus on
specific welfare concerns may be detrimental to answering broader welfare
issues such as the subjective state of animals.
Neuroscience and Behavior
Modern neuroscience supports Darwin's view on emotions in animals.
All mammal brains are constructed with the same basic design. They all have a
brainstem, limbic system, cerebellum, and cerebral cortex. The cerebral cortex is
the part of the brain used for thinking and flexible problem solving. The major
difference between the brains of people and animals is in the size and complexity
of the cortex. The emotional systems serving as drivers for behavior are located
in the subcortex, and are similar in all mammals ( Panksepp, 2011 ). Primates
have a larger and more complex cortex than a dog or a pig. Pigs have a more
complex cortex than a rat or a mouse. Furthermore, all animals possess innate
species-specific motor patterns which interact with experience and learning in
determining behavior. Certain behaviors in both wild and domestic animals are
governed largely by innate (hard-wired) programs. Behaviors for copulation,
killing prey, nursing young, and nest building tend to be more instinctual and
hard wired. Experience and learning play a larger role in behaviors that require
more flexibility such as finding food, social interactions, and hunting.
Another basic principle to remember is that animals with large, complex
brains are less governed by innate behavior patterns. For example, bird
behavior is governed more by instinct than that of a dog, whereas an insect
would have more hard-wired behavior patterns than a bird. This principle
was clear to Yerkes (1905) who wrote:
Certain animals are markedly plastic or voluntary in their behavior, others are as
markedly fixed or instinctive. In the primates, plasticity has reached its highest known