Available online
Description
The chief aim of the programme is to consider drinking motivation processes in animals as opposed to eating and other motivations which are discussed in detail in the complementary text. Starting f...rom a highly simplified model of drinking, in which water contained in body fluid is simulated by a tank maintained at a certain level (approximately 60% volume) by the action of various inputs and outputs, the programme investigates some of the gains and losses that regulate the system and then at the motivation which turns drinking behaviour on. Studio models and diagrams are used to teach the mechanism of drinking and specially shot film illustrates animals drinking behaviour in the wild and in controlled laboratory environments The programme ends with a remarkable example of drinking behaviour in a rat, which drinks three or four times its daily supply in just a couple of hours. This behaviour called schedule induced polydypsia is well known yet still cannot be explained using conventional theory.
The chief aim of the programme is to consider drinking motivation processes in animals as opposed to eating and other motivations which are discussed in detail in the complementary text. Starting f...rom a highly simplified model of drinking, in which water contained in body fluid is simulated by a tank maintained at a certain level (approximately 60% volume) by the action of various inputs and outputs, the programme investigates some of the gains and losses that regulate the system and then at the motivation which turns drinking behaviour on. Studio models and diagrams are used to teach the mechanism of drinking and specially shot film illustrates animals drinking behaviour in the wild and in controlled laboratory environments The programme ends with a remarkable example of drinking behaviour in a rat, which drinks three or four times its daily supply in just a couple of hours. This behaviour called schedule induced polydypsia is well known yet still cannot be explained using conventional theory.
| Module code and title: | SD286, "Biology, brain and behaviour" |
|---|---|
| Item code: | SD286; 10 |
| First transmission date: | 18-07-1981 |
| Published: | 1981 |
| Rights Statement: | |
| Restrictions on use: | |
| Duration: | 00:23:27 |
| + Show more... | |
| Producer: | Tony Jolly |
| Contributors: | Tim Roper; F. M.(Frederick M.) Toates |
| Publisher: | BBC Open University |
| Keyword(s): | Body fluid; Drinking motivation; Motivation |
| Footage description: | Film montage of animals drinking in the wild. Shots include impala, wildebeast, lizard, zebra, elephants, camels, insects, etc. Also shots of men drinking water. Fred Toates introduces the programme. He has with him a graphic representation of a man which indicates that the body is made up of 60% water. With the aid of a model Toates explains by what mechanism (drinking, eating, sweating, urinating, etc.) the water balance in the body is maintained. More film shots of animals in the wild and a brief clip of Sebastian Coe running. Fred Toates goes on to discuss where in the body the water is located. Film shots, under magnification of blood flowing through veins and a schematic diagram which shows the circulatory system and also some individual cells. Two ways in which the motivation to drink is activated by animals are discussed by Fred Toates. By these methods, shrinking of individual cells due to fluid loss and shrinkage of blood volume, the drinking mechanism is triggered. Diagrams of cells illustrate some of his points. Toates goes on to summarise these mechanisms for regulating the desire to drink. In order to demonstrate control of fluid intake, Fred Toates uses a working model to simulate the intake of water and its control. He shows that there must be more involved in fluid intake control than balance of body fluids. Toates speculates that animals also learn to regulate their fluid intake. He relates this learning behaviour to a similar method of control in feeding. Over shots of rats in a Skinner box and of animals in the wild, Fred Toates looks at examples of how the drinking control mechanisms described so far work in practice. The programme then looks at an experiment with rats which shows that some remarkable drinking behaviour can be induced in animals. Tim Roper, mostly voice over, describes the experiment in which a rat, which is not suffering from fluid depletion, nevertheless is induced to drink immense amounts of water. Tim Roper goes on to speculate on the reasons why the rat in the above experiment drank so much water. Excerpts from the experiment are shown at intervals. Fred Toates summarises the programme. |
| Master spool number: | HOU3597 |
| Production number: | FOUS185B |
| Videofinder number: | 2082 |
| Available to public: | no |
