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Handbook of behavioural neurobiology, vol. 6. Motivation
Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 15 ( 1 9 8 6 ) 2 9 7 - - 3 0 1
297
Elsevier Science P u b l i s h e r s B.V., A m s t e r d a m - - P r i n t e d in T h e N e t h e r l a n d s
Book Reviews BEHAVIOURAL NEUROBIOLOGY
Handbook of Behavioural Neurobiology, Vol. 6. Motivation. Evelyn Satinoff and Philip Teitelbaum (Editors}. Plenum Press, New York, U.S.A., 1983, 608 pp., price US $69.50, ISBN 0-306-,41068-0. The editors begin by asking the great double-barreled ethological question: "Why does an animal's behavior fluctuate in the face of an unaltered envir o n m e n t . . . How does an animal maintain constancy in the face of a fluctuating e n v i r o n m e n t ? " Applied ethology must point out that the environment concerned is largely the highly manipulated and imposed environment of domestication. This "central problem", which the book addresses, is therefore as much in the domain of applied animal behaviour science as in psychology. The joint editorship with an impressive team of 22 contributors -- all from North American institutions, but all international authorities -- have assembled 14 definitive chapters in five parts which are well illustrated. The most useful chapters have conclusions or summaries or both; a few chapters have neither. Consistency here would have been a fine feature and could have made the book a little more digestible. Applied animal behaviour has, on one side, hypothetical and ethological concepts, while on the other it has neurobiology. To which side should it turn for future support and enlightenment? While pure ethology is helpful, preoccupation with its models is not necessary for the progress of behavioural science into animal industries. Applied ethology needs a more solid basis than the sands of philosophy, ethics and arguable hypothesis. Its "black b o x " attitude belongs in the age of steam ethology. Neurobiology offers the necessary scientific basis to ensure that the applied science will remain a firm one. Unfortunately, neurobiology is too vast an area to be entirely within the reach of all the working parties in applied animal ethology. Almost as though to solve this problem, an area of relevant knowledge has developed to unite the areas of behaviour and neurobiology which goes under the title of neuroethology. We have introductory text books on neuroethology by Ewert (1980) and by Guthrie (1980). Now neuroethology is embodied in this major work on motivation by Satinoff and Teitelbaum. A strong under-current of neuroethology runs throughout several chapters and is the main topic in Chapter 6 which, appropriately enough, deals with prey behaviour -- motivation in the raw. Applied ethologists have the issues of animal motivation laid in their lap as part of the problems of appropriate and optimal animal usage. Here is the definitive work on motivation theory and research. It may seem like a haystack of laboratory animal studies to those looking here for scientific
298 needles with which to sew up the holes in the animal welfare cause, b u t it is nonetheless the comprehensive source of such scientific matter. The problems of domesticated animal motivation, within the circumstances of husbandry and use, will remain with applied animal behaviour scientists for some time. A chance now exists, however, through neuroethology and publications such as this, to begin to appreciate motivation with all its complexities. As the editors of this b o o k remind us, "motivation cannot be explained away without an understanding of the biological rhythms and activational systems that underly behavior". This is the challenge to all of us in applied ethology and this is, in large measure, the content of this book; this is neuroethology too. The authors have dedicated this b o o k to the late James Olds. The work of Olds at the time of his death, was unravelling mechanisms of the brain which provided tenable concepts about drives in animals which fit reality. Olds revealed drive and reward behaviour as being affected by proteins taken up by storage elements in the cerebral cortex. Olds had reviewed the likelihood that the drive mechanisms of the brain are mainly peptide events, i.e. changes in the chemical states of the brain due to hormones. H o w satisfactory it was to have the basis of drive motivation so clearly distilled. By their own admission, the editors have left a gap in this b o o k which concerns the effects of drive and reward on motivation, and which could only have been filled by Olds. It is probably the only notable omission in the broad scope o f this book. In looking at the motivated behaviour of homeostasis, the b o o k takes a conventional but restrictive view of the process as a t r o p h i c one. Ethological homeostatic processes go b e y o n d this, and are concerned with the several facets of maintenance which range from reactivity, through trophic activities and balanced relationships (with both the animate and inanimate environment), to bodily exercise, physical care and rest. In an editorial in this journal concerning this point, the statement was made that, in general, maintenance is the essence of ethological homeostatis and vice versa. Animal productionists in ethology understand this. The part of this book dealing with homeostasis has three chapters which deal in very great depth with: brain mechanisms, sensorimotor processes and motivation relating to ingestion; the brain chemistry and control of food intake; the neuropsychology of drinking behaviour. While there are extremely complex physiological scenes in trophic homeostatis, the pictures are made even more complicated by the super-imposition of cognitive and hedonic controls. This latter point is the subject of interesting discussion at the conclusion of Chap. 9, by A.N. Epstein, whose final word on the matter is helpful (p. 411): " . . . drinking and feeding may occur frequently and in modest amounts not because the animal is compelled to restore accumulated deficits b u t because it anticipates the pleasures of ingestion and thereby avoids the deficits entirely." A minor complaint a b o u t the indexing could be made. For students, a
299
limited index is not satisfactory. Only seven pages are given where one could expect 20 pages of indexed items for a text of 583 pages. At least one indexed term could not be found on the page given. In other instances items indexed for only one page were found on several additional pages in the text. Motivation is essential now in every library on applied ethology to fill the shelf space once occupied by the "black b o x " into which ethologists were not encouraged to look for behaviour explanations. Harmonization between ethology and neuroscience will not be easy or swift, but it is now the main challenge which committed applied ethologists must accept. A.F. FRASER Health Science Complex Memorial University o f Newfoundland St. John's Newfoundland Canada REFERENCES Ewart, J.-P., 1980. Neuroethology: An Introduction to the Neurophysiological Fundamentals of Behaviour. Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Heidelberg, New York. Guthrie, D.M., 1980. Neuroethology: An Introduction. Wiley, New York.
ANIMAL BEHAVIOUR FOR VETERINARIANS AND SCIENTISTS
Domestic Animal Behaviour for Veterinarians and Animal Scientists by K.A. Houpt and T.R. Wolski. Iowa State University Press, Ames, IA, U.S.A., 1982, 356 pp., illustrated, price $29.95, ISBN 0-8138-1060-4. This book is intended for veterinarians and animal scientists, agricultural students, livestock-operation owners and zoologists. The prime objective of the authors of this publication is defined as follows: "It is our hope that domestic animal behaviour will become a flourishing discipline that will aid and be aided by the professions of veterinary medicine, animal science and psychology". The book is sub-divided into 11 chapters, entitled Communication, Aggression and Social Structure, Biological R h y t h m s and Sleep, Sexual Behaviour, Maternal Behaviour, Development of Behaviour, Learning, Human--Animal Relationship, Ingestive Behaviour, Behavioural Disorders and Cruelty. The text is accompanied by a substantial n u m b e r of goodquality illustrations. Attached are two appendices summarizing chronologically behavioural developments in dogs and cats, and the usual reference index. The typesetting and graphical arrangement of the book is pleasing to the reader. The chosen format, paper quality and other essential attributes of a textbook all indicate the efforts o f a talented publisher.
297
Elsevier Science P u b l i s h e r s B.V., A m s t e r d a m - - P r i n t e d in T h e N e t h e r l a n d s
Book Reviews BEHAVIOURAL NEUROBIOLOGY
Handbook of Behavioural Neurobiology, Vol. 6. Motivation. Evelyn Satinoff and Philip Teitelbaum (Editors}. Plenum Press, New York, U.S.A., 1983, 608 pp., price US $69.50, ISBN 0-306-,41068-0. The editors begin by asking the great double-barreled ethological question: "Why does an animal's behavior fluctuate in the face of an unaltered envir o n m e n t . . . How does an animal maintain constancy in the face of a fluctuating e n v i r o n m e n t ? " Applied ethology must point out that the environment concerned is largely the highly manipulated and imposed environment of domestication. This "central problem", which the book addresses, is therefore as much in the domain of applied animal behaviour science as in psychology. The joint editorship with an impressive team of 22 contributors -- all from North American institutions, but all international authorities -- have assembled 14 definitive chapters in five parts which are well illustrated. The most useful chapters have conclusions or summaries or both; a few chapters have neither. Consistency here would have been a fine feature and could have made the book a little more digestible. Applied animal behaviour has, on one side, hypothetical and ethological concepts, while on the other it has neurobiology. To which side should it turn for future support and enlightenment? While pure ethology is helpful, preoccupation with its models is not necessary for the progress of behavioural science into animal industries. Applied ethology needs a more solid basis than the sands of philosophy, ethics and arguable hypothesis. Its "black b o x " attitude belongs in the age of steam ethology. Neurobiology offers the necessary scientific basis to ensure that the applied science will remain a firm one. Unfortunately, neurobiology is too vast an area to be entirely within the reach of all the working parties in applied animal ethology. Almost as though to solve this problem, an area of relevant knowledge has developed to unite the areas of behaviour and neurobiology which goes under the title of neuroethology. We have introductory text books on neuroethology by Ewert (1980) and by Guthrie (1980). Now neuroethology is embodied in this major work on motivation by Satinoff and Teitelbaum. A strong under-current of neuroethology runs throughout several chapters and is the main topic in Chapter 6 which, appropriately enough, deals with prey behaviour -- motivation in the raw. Applied ethologists have the issues of animal motivation laid in their lap as part of the problems of appropriate and optimal animal usage. Here is the definitive work on motivation theory and research. It may seem like a haystack of laboratory animal studies to those looking here for scientific
298 needles with which to sew up the holes in the animal welfare cause, b u t it is nonetheless the comprehensive source of such scientific matter. The problems of domesticated animal motivation, within the circumstances of husbandry and use, will remain with applied animal behaviour scientists for some time. A chance now exists, however, through neuroethology and publications such as this, to begin to appreciate motivation with all its complexities. As the editors of this b o o k remind us, "motivation cannot be explained away without an understanding of the biological rhythms and activational systems that underly behavior". This is the challenge to all of us in applied ethology and this is, in large measure, the content of this book; this is neuroethology too. The authors have dedicated this b o o k to the late James Olds. The work of Olds at the time of his death, was unravelling mechanisms of the brain which provided tenable concepts about drives in animals which fit reality. Olds revealed drive and reward behaviour as being affected by proteins taken up by storage elements in the cerebral cortex. Olds had reviewed the likelihood that the drive mechanisms of the brain are mainly peptide events, i.e. changes in the chemical states of the brain due to hormones. H o w satisfactory it was to have the basis of drive motivation so clearly distilled. By their own admission, the editors have left a gap in this b o o k which concerns the effects of drive and reward on motivation, and which could only have been filled by Olds. It is probably the only notable omission in the broad scope o f this book. In looking at the motivated behaviour of homeostasis, the b o o k takes a conventional but restrictive view of the process as a t r o p h i c one. Ethological homeostatic processes go b e y o n d this, and are concerned with the several facets of maintenance which range from reactivity, through trophic activities and balanced relationships (with both the animate and inanimate environment), to bodily exercise, physical care and rest. In an editorial in this journal concerning this point, the statement was made that, in general, maintenance is the essence of ethological homeostatis and vice versa. Animal productionists in ethology understand this. The part of this book dealing with homeostasis has three chapters which deal in very great depth with: brain mechanisms, sensorimotor processes and motivation relating to ingestion; the brain chemistry and control of food intake; the neuropsychology of drinking behaviour. While there are extremely complex physiological scenes in trophic homeostatis, the pictures are made even more complicated by the super-imposition of cognitive and hedonic controls. This latter point is the subject of interesting discussion at the conclusion of Chap. 9, by A.N. Epstein, whose final word on the matter is helpful (p. 411): " . . . drinking and feeding may occur frequently and in modest amounts not because the animal is compelled to restore accumulated deficits b u t because it anticipates the pleasures of ingestion and thereby avoids the deficits entirely." A minor complaint a b o u t the indexing could be made. For students, a
299
limited index is not satisfactory. Only seven pages are given where one could expect 20 pages of indexed items for a text of 583 pages. At least one indexed term could not be found on the page given. In other instances items indexed for only one page were found on several additional pages in the text. Motivation is essential now in every library on applied ethology to fill the shelf space once occupied by the "black b o x " into which ethologists were not encouraged to look for behaviour explanations. Harmonization between ethology and neuroscience will not be easy or swift, but it is now the main challenge which committed applied ethologists must accept. A.F. FRASER Health Science Complex Memorial University o f Newfoundland St. John's Newfoundland Canada REFERENCES Ewart, J.-P., 1980. Neuroethology: An Introduction to the Neurophysiological Fundamentals of Behaviour. Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Heidelberg, New York. Guthrie, D.M., 1980. Neuroethology: An Introduction. Wiley, New York.
ANIMAL BEHAVIOUR FOR VETERINARIANS AND SCIENTISTS
Domestic Animal Behaviour for Veterinarians and Animal Scientists by K.A. Houpt and T.R. Wolski. Iowa State University Press, Ames, IA, U.S.A., 1982, 356 pp., illustrated, price $29.95, ISBN 0-8138-1060-4. This book is intended for veterinarians and animal scientists, agricultural students, livestock-operation owners and zoologists. The prime objective of the authors of this publication is defined as follows: "It is our hope that domestic animal behaviour will become a flourishing discipline that will aid and be aided by the professions of veterinary medicine, animal science and psychology". The book is sub-divided into 11 chapters, entitled Communication, Aggression and Social Structure, Biological R h y t h m s and Sleep, Sexual Behaviour, Maternal Behaviour, Development of Behaviour, Learning, Human--Animal Relationship, Ingestive Behaviour, Behavioural Disorders and Cruelty. The text is accompanied by a substantial n u m b e r of goodquality illustrations. Attached are two appendices summarizing chronologically behavioural developments in dogs and cats, and the usual reference index. The typesetting and graphical arrangement of the book is pleasing to the reader. The chosen format, paper quality and other essential attributes of a textbook all indicate the efforts o f a talented publisher.