Looking for pointers.

Many behaviors of animals are thought to be genetically programmed. Tinbergen proposed the so-called hierarchical model of behavior that postulates animals have a hierarchically organized nerve center that releases behaviors. When an animal attains a certain physiological condition the highest nerve center is activated. In this period the second highest nerve center can be activated but still is inhibited so without a certain key stimulus a lower nerve center can not be activated. The mechanism removing this inhibitionis called the innate releasing mechanism (IRM). When the key stimulus is perceived by the animal, it releases a hierarchy-specific behavior. This mechanism is called ‘innate’ because the key stimulus is genetically programmed as well as the behavior that it releases .

This hierarchical model of behavior is not based on neurophysiological experiments but offers an important working hypothesis for elucidating the neural mechanisms of behavior.~ https://invbrain.neuroinf.jp/modules/htmldocs/IVBPF/General/behavior.html

This is from a website I was on last night (see link). Is Tinbergen's hierarchical hypothesis what most people are going by in these discussions about T behavior and "brain" function? Is this the accepted theory? Anyone feel like sharing any helpful links or information in the search for knowledge of any studies done on T biology or behavior? I'm aware of google but does anyone have any links to videos or studies or papers or anything they found to be particularly enlightening about tarantulas specifically?

English please, professor. We're bug collectors.

Spiders, especially tarantulas, are not really used for behavioral studied because they have a very very small brain that has the stomach going though it. I think there is a paper about how certain true spiders can be "trained" to react to a certain stimulus. I did a small experiment about de-sensitizing spiders to certain stimuli but it was just a little college project. Most studies on spiders/tarantulas are generally on how they breed or hunt as surprisingly very little is known about many spiders. What you need to do is talk to an animal behaviorist, we are mostly just people with normal jobs who just like spiders. Tarantulas are a mixed bag anyway, there are 3 courses that they usually take: Attack, do nothing or run; I've had tarantulas react to the same stimuli totally differently, so even if you were to do a study it's very limited because you have an animal with a very simple brain.

Hmm. The forum stated anything scientific related to tarantulas. The quote was from a webpage. My own words, and to be honest the quoted paragraph, were not difficult to decipher. But thanks for the useless post and thanks for trying to discourage me from ever bringing anything like that up on the forum again. You guys are something else...

VenomousMe said:

Hmm. The forum stated anything scientific related to tarantulas. The quote was from a webpage. My own words, and to be honest the quoted paragraph, were not difficult to decipher. But thanks for the useless post and thanks for trying to discourage me from ever bringing anything like that up on the forum again. You guys are something else...

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You are correct in that the forum says anything scientific related to spiders, but this is a site ran by normal people for normal people. Did I understand what you said? Yes but I have a biology degree and am familiar with the theory you are talking about. I answered your question the best I could but even talking to 2 respected arachnologist they can back me up in that spiders are very simple in the brain department which is not conducive to what you are talking about. As I said an animal behavioralist is your best bet because most studies on spiders don't pertain to what you're interested in.

VenomousMe said:

to be honest the quoted paragraph, were not difficult to decipher. But thanks for the useless post and thanks for trying to discourage me from ever bringing anything like that up on the forum again. You guys are something else...

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We're just regular people talking here, collectors, breeders, hobbyists, and your post shouldn't have to be 'deciphered', difficult or otherwise. Only takes a minute to see how we talk here, and we're not scientists. You've making a good impression so far. Maybe we are beneath you, but you're not going to make any friends with that attitude and picking fights like you did in another thread here.

Poec54 said:

We're just regular people talking here, collectors, breeders, hobbyists, and your post shouldn't have to be 'deciphered', difficult or otherwise. Only takes a minute to see how we talk here, and we're not scientists. You've making a good impression so far. Maybe we are beneath you, but you're not going to make any friends picking with that attitude and fights like you did in another thread here.

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oh be careful Poec54... VenemousMe here has sunk his fangs into me already.. His disdain of the "regulars" as he puts it, on the forums here is increasingly evident. I know you saw the thread he and I had words, I expect more of the same from this individual.

*sniff* *sniff* Methinks I smell a troll lurking about....

ratluvr76 said:

oh be careful Poec54... VenemousMe here has sunk his fangs into me already.. His disdain of the "regulars" as he puts it, on the forums here is increasingly evident. I know you saw the thread he and I had words, I expect more of the same from this individual.

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There was no justification for him to lash out at you. I'm sure we're not the first.

Poec54 said:

There was no justification for him to lash out at you. I'm sure we're not the first.

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nor the last... though I think we are the first since he's only got a grand total of 7 posts to date. At least that are showing on the starting post on this thread under his profile pic.

---------- Post added 09-23-2014 at 08:45 PM ----------

and thank you for saying there was no justification.

They aren't necessarily focused on tarantulas, but Barth's A Spider's World: Senses and Behavior and Foelix's Biology of Spiders will give you some excellent info on the neurological systems of spiders.