Regulation of Body Mass and Stored Food

卢卡斯9222313 研究行为的功能意义的一个重要焦点是生理状态对觅食决策表达的影响。 在过去，实验者对动物施加饥饿和质量的变化，并监测由此产生的行为变化。 然而，行为系统涉及反馈回路，因为觅食决策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首次尝试评估缓存动物的整个反馈回路。 食物贮藏行为通常被视为一种机制，使小动物能够度过精力紧张的时期，特别是冬季。 卢卡斯博士发现，某些条件实际上会阻碍山雀储存食物，这反过来又降低了这些鸟类在食物稀缺时维持足够体重的能力。 目前的研究旨在研究影响能量储存的条件，包括身体质量和食物储存。 能量储存策略反过来会影响鸟类在面临资源短缺时改变行为的能力，以提高它们的生存机会。 由于卢卡斯博士将研究体重和食物储备的调节，他的研究结果将广泛适用于理解任何物种（包括人类）的能量和体重调节。

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.