How Does Individual Recognition Evolve? Comparing Responses to Identity Information in P olistes Species with and Without Individual Recognition

A wide range of complex social behaviors are facilitated by the recognition of individual conspecifics. Individual recognition requires sufficient phenotypic variation to provide identity information as well as receivers that process and respond to identity information. Understanding how a complex trait such as individual recognition evolves requires that we consider how each component has evolved. Previous comparative studies have examined phenotypic variability in senders and receiver learning abilities, although little work has compared receiver responses to identity information among related species with and without individual recognition. Here, we compare responses to identity information in two Polistes paper wasps: P. fuscatus, which visually recognizes individuals, and P. metricus , which does not normally show evidence of individual recognition. Although the species differ in individual recognition, the results of this study show that receiver responses to experimentally manipulated identity information are surprisingly similar in both species. Receivers direct less aggression toward identifiable individuals than unidentifiable individuals. Therefore, the responses necessary for individual recognition may pre‐date its evolution in the P. fuscatus lineage. Additionally, our data demonstrate the apparent binary differences in a complex behavior between the two species, such as individual recognition, likely involve incremental differences along a number of axes.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/102093/1/eth12191.pd

Toward an integrative understanding of social behavior: new models and new opportunities.

Social interactions among conspecifics are a fundamental and adaptively significant component of the biology of numerous species. Such interactions give rise to group living as well as many of the complex forms of cooperation and conflict that occur within animal groups. Although previous conceptual models have focused on the ecological causes and fitness consequences of variation in social interactions, recent developments in endocrinology, neuroscience, and molecular genetics offer exciting opportunities to develop more integrated research programs that will facilitate new insights into the physiological causes and consequences of social variation. Here, we propose an integrative framework of social behavior that emphasizes relationships between ultimate-level function and proximate-level mechanism, thereby providing a foundation for exploring the full diversity of factors that underlie variation in social interactions, and ultimately sociality. In addition to identifying new model systems for the study of human psychopathologies, this framework provides a mechanistic basis for predicting how social behavior will change in response to environmental variation. We argue that the study of non-model organisms is essential for implementing this integrative model of social behavior because such species can be studied simultaneously in the lab and field, thereby allowing integration of rigorously controlled experimental manipulations with detailed observations of the ecological contexts in which interactions among conspecifics occur

Architecture and Neuroscience; what can the EEG recording of brain activity reveal about a walk through everyday spaces?

New digital media and quantitative data have been increasingly used in an attempt to map, understand and analyse spaces. Each different medium with which we analyse and map spaces offers a different insight, and can potentially increase our tools and methods for mapping spaces and understanding human experience. The emergence of such technologies has the potential to influence the way in which we map, analyse and perceive spaces. Given this context, the project presented in this paper examines how neurophysiological data, recorded with the use of portable electroencephalography (EEG) devices, can help us understand how the brain responds to physical environments in different individuals. In this study we look into how a number of participants navigate in an urban environment; between specific identified buildings in the city. The brain activity of the participants is recorded with a portable EEG device whilst simultaneously video recording the route. Through this experiment we aim to observe and analyse the relationship between the physical environment and the participant’s type of brain activity. We attempt to correlate how key moments of their journey, such as moments of decision making, relate to recordings of specific brain waves. We map and analyse certain common patterns observed. We look into how the variation of the physical attributes of the built environment around them is related to the fluctuation of specific brain waves. This paper presents a specific project of an ongoing cross-disciplinary study between architecture and neuroscience, and the key findings of a specific experiment in an urban environment

Alloparental behaviour and long-term costs of mothers tolerating other members of the group in a plurally breeding mammal

Cooperative-breeding studies tend to focus on a few alloparental behaviours in highly cooperative species exhibiting high reproductive skew and the associated short-term, but less frequently long-term, fitness costs. We analysed a suite of alloparental behaviours (assessed via filming) in a kin-structured, high-density population of plurally breeding European badgers, Meles meles, which are not highly cooperative. Group members, other than mothers, performed alloparental behaviour; however, this was not correlated with their relatedness to within-group young. Furthermore, mothers babysat, allogroomed cubs without reciprocation, and allomarked cubs more than other members of the group (controlling for observation time). For welfare reasons, we could not individually mark cubs; however, the number observed pre-independence never exceeded that trapped. All 24 trapped cubs, in three filmed groups, were assigned both parents using 22 microsatellites. Mothers may breed cooperatively, as the time they babysat their assigned, or a larger, litter size did not differ. Furthermore, two mothers probably allonursed, as they suckled more cubs than their assigned litter size. An 18-year genetic pedigree, however, detected no short-term (litter size; maternal survival to the following year) or long-term (offspring breeding probability; offspring lifetime breeding success) fitness benefits with more within-group mothers or other members of the group. Rather, the number of other members of the group (excluding mothers) correlated negatively with long-term fitness. Mothers may tolerate other members of the group, as nonbreeders undertook more digging. Our study highlights that alloparental care varies on a continuum from that seen in this high-density badger population, where alloparenting behaviour is minimal, through to species where alloparental care is common and provides fitness benefits. (C) 2010 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Altruism in a volatile world

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Springer Nature via the DOI in this record.The evolution of altruism – costly self-sacrifice in the service of others – has puzzled biologists since The Origin of Species. For half a century, attempts to understand altruism have been built on the insight that altruists may help relatives to have extra offspring in order to spread shared genes . This theory – known as inclusive fitness – is founded on a simple inequality termed ‘Hamilton’s rule’. However, explanations of altruism have typically ignored the stochasticity of natural environments, which will not necessarily favour genotypes that produce the greatest average reproductive success. Moreover, empirical data across many taxa reveal associations between altruism and environmental stochasticity, a pattern not predicted by standard interpretations of Hamilton’s rule. Here, we derive Hamilton’s rule with explicit stochasticity, leading to novel predictions about the evolution of altruism. We show that of offspring produced by relatives. Consequently, costly altruism can evolve even if it has a net negative effect on the average reproductive success of related recipients. The selective pressure on volatility suppressing altruism is proportional to the coefficient of variation in population fitness, and is therefore diminished by its own success. Our results formalise the hitherto elusive link between bet-hedging and altruism, and reveal missing fitness effects in the evolution of animal societies.PK was supported by the National Geographic Society (GEF-NE 145-15) and a University of Bristol Research Studentship; ADH was supported by the Natural Environment Research Council (NE/L011921/1); ANR was supported by a European Research Council Consolidator Grant (award no. 682253); and SS was supported by the Natural Environment Research Council (NE/M012913/2)

How Group Size Affects Vigilance Dynamics and Time Allocation Patterns: The Key Role of Imitation and Tempo

In the context of social foraging, predator detection has been the subject of numerous studies, which acknowledge the adaptive response of the individual to the trade-off between feeding and vigilance. Typically, animals gain energy by increasing their feeding time and decreasing their vigilance effort with increasing group size, without increasing their risk of predation (‘group size effect’). Research on the biological utility of vigilance has prevailed over considerations of the mechanistic rules that link individual decisions to group behavior. With sheep as a model species, we identified how the behaviors of conspecifics affect the individual decisions to switch activity. We highlight a simple mechanism whereby the group size effect on collective vigilance dynamics is shaped by two key features: the magnitude of social amplification and intrinsic differences between foraging and scanning bout durations. Our results highlight a positive correlation between the duration of scanning and foraging bouts at the level of the group. This finding reveals the existence of groups with high and low rates of transition between activies, suggesting individual variations in the transition rate, or ‘tempo’. We present a mathematical model based on behavioral rules derived from experiments. Our theoretical predictions show that the system is robust in respect to variations in the propensity to imitate scanning and foraging, yet flexible in respect to differences in the duration of activity bouts. The model shows how individual decisions contribute to collective behavior patterns and how the group, in turn, facilitates individual-level adaptive responses

Neural Circuits Underlying Rodent Sociality: A Comparative Approach

All mammals begin life in social groups, but for some species, social relationships persist and develop throughout the course of an individual’s life. Research in multiple rodent species provides evidence of relatively conserved circuitry underlying social behaviors and processes such as social recognition and memory, social reward, and social approach/avoidance. Species exhibiting different complex social behaviors and social systems (such as social monogamy or familiarity preferences) can be characterized in part by when and how they display specific social behaviors. Prairie and meadow voles are closely related species that exhibit similarly selective peer preferences but different mating systems, aiding direct comparison of the mechanisms underlying affiliative behavior. This chapter draws on research in voles as well as other rodents to explore the mechanisms involved in individual social behavior processes, as well as specific complex social patterns. Contrasts between vole species exemplify how the laboratory study of diverse species improves our understanding of the mechanisms underlying social behavior. We identify several additional rodent species whose interesting social structures and available ecological and behavioral field data make them good candidates for study. New techniques and integration across laboratory and field settings will provide exciting opportunities for future mechanistic work in non-model species

Despotism and Risk of Infanticide Influence Grizzly Bear Den-Site Selection

Given documented social dominance and intraspecific predation in bear populations, the ideal despotic distribution model and sex hypothesis of sexual segregation predict adult female grizzly bears (Ursus arctos) will avoid areas occupied by adult males to reduce risk of infanticide. Under ideal despotic distribution, juveniles should similarly avoid adult males to reduce predation risk. Den-site selection and use is an important component of grizzly bear ecology and may be influenced by multiple factors, including risk from conspecifics. To test the role of predation risk and the sex hypothesis of sexual segregation, we compared adult female (n = 142), adult male (n = 36), and juvenile (n = 35) den locations in Denali National Park and Preserve, Alaska, USA. We measured elevation, aspect, slope, and dominant land cover for each den site, and used maximum entropy modeling to determine which variables best predicted den sites. We identified the global model as the best-fitting model for adult female (area under curve (AUC) = 0.926) and elevation as the best predictive variable for adult male (AUC = 0.880) den sites. The model containing land cover and elevation best-predicted juvenile (AUC = 0.841) den sites. Adult females spatially segregated from adult males, with dens characterized by higher elevations ( = 1,412 m, SE = 52) and steeper slopes ( = 21.9°, SE = 1.1) than adult male (elevation:  = 1,209 m, SE = 76; slope:  = 15.6°, SE = 1.9) den sites. Juveniles used a broad range of landscape attributes but did not avoid adult male denning areas. Observed spatial segregation by adult females supports the sex hypothesis of sexual segregation and we suggest is a mechanism to reduce risk of infanticide. Den site selection of adult males is likely related to distribution of food resources during spring