The Dancing Mouse: A Study in Animal Behavior — John Shaqi
The Dancing Mouse: A Study in Animal BehaviorYerkes, Robert Mearns
Science
The Dancing Mouse: A Study in Animal Behavior
Yerkes, Robert Mearns
Animal behavior; Dancing mice
The behavior of the blinded animal is so important in its bearings upon
the facts of orientation and equilibration that it must be considered in
connection with them. Cyon insists that the sense of vision is of great
importance to the dancer in orienting and equilibrating itself. When the
eyes are covered with cotton wads fastened by collodion, this writer
states (9 p. 223) that the mice behave as do pigeons and frogs whose
semicircular canals have been destroyed. They perform violent forced
movements, turn somersaults forward and backward, run up inclines and fall
over the edges, and roll over and over. In a word, they show precisely the
kind of disturbances of behavior which are characteristic of animals whose
semicircular canals are not functioning normally. Cyon, however, observed
that in certain dancers these peculiarities of behavior did not appear
when they were blinded, but that, instead, the animals gave no other
indication of being inconvenienced by the lack of sight than do common
white mice. This matter of individual differences we shall have to
consider more fully later.
No other observer agrees with Cyon in his conclusions concerning vision,
or, for that matter, in his statements concerning the behavior of the
blind dancer. Alexander and Kreidl (1 p. 550) contrast in the following
respects the behavior of the white mouse and that of the dancer when they
are blinded. The white mouse runs less securely and avoids obstacles less
certainly when deprived of vision. The dancer is much disturbed at first
by the shock caused by the removal of its eyes, or in case they are
covered, by the presence of the unusual obstruction. It soon recovers
sufficiently to become active, but it staggers, swerves often from side to
side, and frequently falls over. It moves clumsily and more slowly than
usual. Later these early indications of blindness may wholly disappear,
and only a slightly impaired ability to avoid obstacles remains.
It was noted by Kishi (21 p. 484), that the dancer when first blinded
trembles violently, jumps about wildly, and rolls over repeatedly, as Cyon
has stated; but Kishi believes that these disturbances of behavior are
temporary effects of the strong stimulation of certain reflex centers in
the nervous system. After having been blinded for only a few minutes the
dancers observed by him became fairly normal in their behavior. They moved
about somewhat more slowly than usually, especially when in a position
which required accurately coordinated movements. He therefore fully agrees
with Alexander and Kreidl in their conclusion that vision is not so
important for the guidance of the movements of the dancer as Cyon
believes.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account