Question

I have asked this question before however I am not getting the right answer. What is the evolutionary advantage to having the conduction velocity of neural impulses change with temperature, and which of the five major groups of vertebrate organisms might benefit most from this phenomenon? Explain thoroughly please.

Answer 1

Answer:

• Mylein affects the nervous system, and hence the physiological and behavioral capabilities of an organism, in many ways.
• The primary impact is two-fold: on conduction speed and on the metabolic costs of nerve impulses.

1)Myelin speeds the conduction of nerve impulses by a factor of 10 compared to unmyelinated fibers of the same diameter.

2)Increased conduction speed increases the nervous system's information processing speed.

3)Decrease reaction time to stimuli:

• Promotes the ability to escape from sudden predatory attack
• Promotes the ability to recognize and rapidly react to available prey.

4)Increase temporal precision:

• Enhances precision in event timing by reducing the absolute travel time and thus absolute temporal variability in communication between two points.
• Permits greater precision in spatial localization of stimuli (Wilson & Hartline 2011)(this may be especially useful for localizing sounds through binaural comparison, and might be expected to improve success in evading predatory attacks as well as be an advantage for auditory predators such as owls).

5) Enable synchronization of spatially distributed targets:

• Synchronizes different regions of a muscle sheet or synergistic byt spatially disperssed muscles.

6)Provides shorter delays in feedback loops:

• Increases intrinsic stability of feedback loops
• Increases the frequency response of neural systems

7) provide faster communication between brain and body.

Myelin provide clear source of selective pressure for its evolutionary iinvention.

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