IOS: Conference Proposal: Sending and Receiving Signals - Endocrine Modulation of Social Communication

该奖项支持了一个名为“发送和接收信号：社会交流的内分泌调节”的会议研讨会，该研讨会将在华盛顿特区的综合与比较生物学学会（SICB）年会上举行。动物的交流对生存、繁殖和物种的延续至关重要，但人们对个体的感觉和信号能力是如何根据它们体内的荷尔蒙状态而改变的知之甚少。本次研讨会汇集了在各种动物和感觉系统的研究前沿工作的不同专家，通过演讲传播前沿研究，促进讨论，并发展新的未来研究方向。研讨会将评估该领域的当前和未来状态，并探讨在不同行为环境下影响动物相互交流的进化压力的潜力。这些会议报告的成果将通过出版物、社交媒体广泛传播，并将成为学生的重要教育资源。该奖项将通过支持和为未被充分代表的少数民族和早期职业研究人员提供机会来展示他们的科学并帮助指导研究领域的未来，从而扩大参与。集体成果还具有广泛的社会意义，涉及生物多样性和物种对全球气候变化的反应，以及下一代科学家的专业发展机会。本次研讨会将探讨如何发送和接收感官信息在社会背景下可以深刻地影响个人的生殖和荷尔蒙状态。虽然这与进入和退出繁殖条件的物种特别相关，但许多关于不同生物学水平的动物交流的研究并未考虑对行为的潜在调节影响。本次研讨会将通过整合神经科学、内分泌学、动物行为学、生物力学、感觉生态学和进化等方法来解决这一重大知识缺口。这种整合不仅对在这一领域取得实质性进展至关重要，而且是及时的。通过让不同领域的研究人员意识到这种对不同动物类群、不同感觉通道和不同社会环境之间交流的调节影响，将激发新的研究方向，提出新的科学问题和方法，推动该领域的发展。考虑到通信中的调制对于研究结论的准确解释至关重要，因此该主题对于知识的进步和未来假设检验的发展至关重要。从这些关于感觉可塑性的演讲和讨论中获得的见解有可能从根本上改变目前对感觉功能和动物交流的看法，并将使研究人员能够在未来解决与性选择、物种形成、信号系统、共同进化和生理机制相关的更集中的比较和进化问题。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This award supports a conference symposium entitled “Sending and Receiving Signals: Endocrine Modulation of Social Communication” scheduled to occur in Washington D.C. at the annual meeting of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology (SICB). Animal communication is vital to survival, reproduction, and species persistence, but little is known about how an individual’s sensory and signaling abilities may change based on their internal hormonal state. This symposium brings together diverse experts working at the frontiers of research on this topic in various animals and sensory systems to disseminate cutting-edge research via presentations, promote discussion, and develop novel future research directions. The symposium will assess the current and future state of the field and explore the potential for evolutionary pressures to influence how animals communicate with each other in different behavioral contexts. Outcomes of these conference presentations will be disseminated broadly via publications, social media, and will represent seminal educational resources for students. The award will broaden participation by supporting and providing opportunities for underrepresented minorities and early career researchers to present their science and help direct the future of the research field. The collective outcomes also bear broad societal implications relevant to biodiversity and species’ responses to global climate change, as well as professional development opportunities for the next generation of scientists.This conference symposium will explore how sending and receiving sensory information in social contexts can be profoundly influenced by an individual’s reproductive and hormonal state. While this is particularly relevant in species that cycle in and out of breeding condition, many studies on animal communication at different biological levels do not consider potential modulatory influences on behaviors. This conference symposium will address this major knowledge gap through the integration of approaches from neuroscience, endocrinology, animal behavior, biomechanics, sensory ecology, and evolution. Such integration is not only critical to making substantive advances in this area, it is also timely. By making researchers in diverse fields aware of this modulatory influence on communication across different animal taxa, various sensory channels, and distinct social contexts, it will inspire new research directions and formulation of novel scientific questions and approaches to advance the field. Considering modulation in communication is critical to accurate interpretations of study conclusions, making this topic crucial for advancement of knowledge and development of future hypothesis testing. Insights gained from these presentations and discussions on sensory plasticity have the potential to fundamentally change current thinking about sensory function and animal communication and will allow researchers to address more focused comparative and evolutionary questions related to sexual selection, speciation, signaling systems, co-evolution, and physiological mechanisms in the future.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.