The Role of Multimodal Cue Assessment in Sexual Selection

多模式线索评估在性别选择中的作用

• 批准号: 0517328
• 负责人: Michael Ryan
• 金额: $ 35.85万
• 依托单位: University of Texas at Austin
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2005
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2005-09-01 至 2009-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0517328&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Role; Multimodal; Cue; Assessment; Sexual

An active body of research has demonstrated that females are likely to influence the evolution of male traits by preferring to mate with the most conspicuous males in a population. For example, female peafowl prefer to mate with peacocks possessing tails that are highly ornamented with eyespots and female frogs prefer to mate with males that produce longer or more complex vocal calls. The vast majority of this research, however, has focused on how females choose mates when presented with only a single kind of mating signal. For example, extensive experimental work has shown that female frogs express preferences for certain properties of male vocal (advertisement) calls. Under natural conditions, however, animals are likely to use several different sensory modalities (auditory, visual, olfactory etc.) to gather information about potential mates. Thus, experiments that consider only one kind of information may fail to demonstrate the outcome of female mate choice as it occurs under natural conditions. The experiments in this proposal are designed to determine how female tungara frogs, Physalaemus pustulosus, choose mates when they are presented with multiple kinds of information. The researchers will present female tungara frogs with a combination of auditory signals (male vocal calls) and visual cues (highly realistic robotic male frogs that mimic the movement of live males) to assess the outcome of mate choice. In doing so, the researchers will be able to gain a better understanding of the processes by which females choose mates and how those mate choices are likely to influence the evolution of both male calls and vocal sac pattern. In addition, this research seeks to understand how the female tungara frog brain processes multiple kinds of sensory information. The researchers will investigate neural activity within the frogs' brain to gain a better understanding of how multiple sensory inputs are processed. These data will yield insights into neural processes by which females integrate multiple information types into their mate choice decisions. Finally, this research will compare behavioral and neural responses of female frogs between two species, the tungara frog and the (Peter's Frog), Physalaemus petersi. Although these two species are closely related, their behavior and ecology are very different. Broader impacts ensue from comparisons of female responses to multiple stimuli across species thus, the researchers will be able to better understand the factors influencing the evolution of multicomponent sexual displays. Additionally the research program of the PI has had broader impacts in four areas: 1) student training; 2) especially of Latin Americans and women; 3) educational outreach, development of free research tools; and 4) a variety of miscellaneous results that heighten public awareness of animal behavior. Contributions in all of these areas of broader impact will be continued in this research program.

一项活跃的研究表明，雌性更喜欢与种群中最显眼的雄性交配，从而可能影响雄性特征的进化。例如，雌性孔雀更喜欢与尾巴上有高度装饰眼点的孔雀交配，雌性青蛙更喜欢与发出更长或更复杂叫声的雄性交配。然而，这项研究的绝大多数都集中在雌性在只得到一种交配信号时如何选择配偶。例如，广泛的实验研究表明，雌性青蛙表达了对雄性发声(广告)叫声的某些特性的偏好。然而，在自然条件下，动物可能会使用几种不同的感觉方式(听觉、视觉、嗅觉等)。收集有关潜在配偶的信息。因此，只考虑一种信息的实验可能无法证明女性择偶的结果，因为它发生在自然条件下。这项建议中的实验旨在确定雌性金枪鱼青蛙在被提供多种信息时如何选择配偶。研究人员将向雌性金枪鱼提供听觉信号(雄性发声)和视觉提示(模仿活着雄性青蛙运动的高度逼真的机器雄性青蛙)的组合，以评估配偶选择的结果。通过这样做，研究人员将能够更好地了解雌性选择配偶的过程，以及这些配偶选择可能如何影响男性叫声和声囊模式的进化。此外，这项研究还试图了解雌性金枪鱼的大脑是如何处理多种感觉信息的。研究人员将调查青蛙大脑中的神经活动，以更好地了解多种感觉输入是如何处理的。这些数据将提供对神经过程的洞察，通过这些过程，女性将多种信息类型整合到她们的配偶选择决定中。最后，这项研究将比较两个物种--通加拉蛙和皮特青蛙(Physalaemus Petersi)--雌性青蛙的行为和神经反应。虽然这两个物种关系密切，但它们的行为和生态却截然不同。通过比较不同物种的女性对多种刺激的反应会产生更广泛的影响，因此，研究人员将能够更好地理解影响多组份性行为进化的因素。此外，国际动物保护协会的研究计划在四个领域产生了更广泛的影响：1)学生培训；2)特别是拉丁美洲人和妇女；3)教育推广，开发免费研究工具；以及4)提高公众对动物行为的认识的各种杂项成果。所有这些具有更广泛影响的领域的贡献将在这项研究计划中继续下去。