Regulation of Body Mass and Stored Food

卢卡斯9222313在行为功能意义的研究中的一个重要焦点一直是生理状态对觅食决策表达的影响。在过去，实验者将饥饿和体重的变化强加给动物，并监测由此导致的行为变化。然而，行为系统涉及一个反馈回路，因为觅食决定本身会影响生理状态的进一步变化。卢卡斯博士的研究将是评估缓存动物整个反馈回路的首批尝试之一。储藏食物的行为通常被视为一种机制，可以让小动物度过精力紧张的时期，特别是冬天。卢卡斯博士发现，某些条件实际上会延缓山雀储存食物的速度，这反过来又降低了山雀在食物匮乏时维持足够体重以维持生存的能力。目前的研究旨在研究影响能量储存的条件，包括体重和食物储存。能源储存策略将反过来影响面临资源短缺的鸟类改变行为以提高生存机会的能力。由于卢卡斯博士将研究体重和食物储备的调节，他的结果将广泛适用于理解包括人类在内的任何物种对能量和体重的调节。

Lucas 9222313 An important focus in the study of the functional significance of behavior has been the impact of physiological state on the expression of foraging decisions. In the past, experimenters have imposed changes in hunger and mass on an animal and have monitored the resulting changes in behavior. However, behavioral systems involve a feedback loop, because foraging decisions themselves will influence further changes in physiological state. Dr. Lucas's research will be one of the first attempts to evaluate the entire feedback loop for a caching animal. Food-caching behavior has often been seen as one mechanism that permits small animals to live through energetically stressful periods, notably winter. Dr. Lucas has found that certain conditions actually retard the storage of food by chickadees, and this in turn reduced the ability of these birds to maintain sufficient body mass to survive when food was scarce. The current reseearch is designed to study conditions that affect the storage of energy, both in the form of body mass and food stores. Energy-storage tactics will in turn affect the ability of birds faced with resource shortfall to alter their behavior in order to improve their chances of survival. Because Dr. Lucas will be studying regulation of body mass as well as food hoards, his results will be broadly applicable to understanding regulation of energy and body mass in any species, including humans.