When 15,000 brain scientists get together, you can expect a lot of heady topics, such as "How do small frogs capture long earthworms?"
Don't jump to another page too quick, because the answer is a lot more important for you than it is for croakers.Dr. Anbanda Weerasuriya of the Mercer Medical School in Macon, Ga., has been studying frogs to gain insights into human reaction times. Her goal is princely - to "better understand mechanisms that underlie diseases of the motor system, thus improving patient rehabilitation procedures."
Frog brains are similar to those of other mammals, including humans, she says, so that "the predictable manner in which a frog approaches, lunges and retrieves a prey into the mouth offers us an excellent (chance) to investigate a vertebrate motor pattern generator and its fine-tuning for optimum performance."
For the study, she used three different-size frogs, long earthworms and short "mealworms." Employing a high speed video camera later analyzed frame-by- frame, she noted the degree of extension of a frog's tongue when it contacted a worm, jaw movement during capture, delay before the first snap, the distance between the frog's snout and the worm, and the length of the worm.
The major finding was that some frogs stuck their tongues out farther than others; small frogs only partially extended their tongues, and large frogs stuck them out all the way.
The frogs, she says, were able to size up their prey and change behaviors depending on the length of their slimey snacks. She concludes that a frog's brain is capable of analyzing two different "prey capture motor programs" and choosing between them.
"It is quite likely that what we eventually learn from this and other animal models on the organization and execution of rapid motor patterns will help us better understand mechanisms that underlie disease of the motor system, thus improving patient rehabilitation procedures," she says.
Other scientists seeking similar insights presented research on the smelling ability of seabirds, testosterone levels in different kinds of tree lizards, color sensations of honeybees and food-finding techniques employed by the black-capped chickadee.
Weerasuriya's research was supported by the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation. It was presented here at the annual convention of the Society of Neuroscience.