Greenberg N
Department of Zoology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville 37996-0810.
Brain Behav Evol. 1993;41(3-5):210-8. doi: 10.1159/000113865.
Tongue-flicking in reptiles is frequently seen to increase in novel habitats and is presumed to involve the acquisition of chemical information. Like most behavioral patterns, however, tongue-flicking has both multiple causes and multiple functions, only some of which involve chemosensation. This paper describes units of exploratory behavior, including use of the tongue, in a microsmatic lizard, the green anole, Anolis carolinensis. This species employs its tongue in a manner suggestive of chemosensory exploration, but it possesses modest peripheral chemosensory organs and reduced central representation of chemosensory target cell groups. Further, specific elements of exploratory behavior are affected differently by treatments that involve altering levels of stress-sensitive hormones, androgen, and central catecholamines. Such differential responses suggest that exploratory behavior is an ensemble of individual units, some of which are selectively sensitive to specific physiological elements of the stress response and of elevated arousal.
在爬行动物中，舔舌行为在新环境中常常会增加，据推测这涉及化学信息的获取。然而，与大多数行为模式一样，舔舌行为有多种原因和多种功能，其中只有一些涉及化学感应。本文描述了一种嗅觉不灵敏的蜥蜴——绿安乐蜥（安乐蜥属卡罗来纳安乐蜥）的探索行为单元，包括舌头的使用。该物种以一种暗示化学感应探索的方式使用舌头，但它拥有适度的外周化学感应器官，且化学感应靶细胞群的中枢表征有所减少。此外，涉及改变应激敏感激素、雄激素和中枢儿茶酚胺水平的处理对探索行为的特定元素有不同影响。这种差异反应表明，探索行为是由各个单元组成的集合，其中一些单元对应激反应和兴奋增强的特定生理元素具有选择性敏感性。
