sensory bias

the display of sensory preferences that may not relate to species-typical signals. Female tungara frogs prefer a low-pitched chuck note that males add to courtship calls, and females of a closely related species also prefer low-pitched chuck notes, even though males of their species do not produce these notes. The preference for low-pitched chuck notes is a sensory bias that can be exploited by any males able to add such a note to their mating calls. See sensory exploitation.

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Psychology term of the day

May 9th 2024

node of Ranvier

any of successive regularly spaced gaps in the myelin sheath surrounding an axon. The gaps permit the exchange of ions across the plasma membrane at those points, allowing the nerve impulse to leap from one node to the next in so-called saltatory conduction along the axon. [Louis A. Ranvier (1835–1922), French pathologist]