The Role of Multimodal Cue Assessment in Sexual Selection

一个活跃的研究机构已经证明，女性可能会影响男性特征的进化，因为她们更喜欢与人群中最显眼的男性交配。 例如，雌性孔雀喜欢与尾巴上有高度斑点的孔雀交配，雌性青蛙喜欢与发出更长或更复杂声音的雄性交配。 然而，这项研究的绝大多数都集中在只有一种交配信号时雌性如何选择配偶。 例如，大量的实验工作表明，雌性青蛙对雄性声音（广告）呼叫的某些特性表示偏好。 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在自然条件下发生的女性择偶结果。 这项提议中的实验旨在确定雌性东加拉蛙（Physalaemus pustulosus）在获得多种信息时如何选择配偶。 研究人员将向雌性tungara青蛙提供听觉信号（雄性的叫声）和视觉线索（高度逼真的机器雄性青蛙，模仿活体雄性的运动）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，以及这些配偶选择如何影响雄性叫声和声囊模式的演变。 此外，这项研究旨在了解雌性东加拉蛙大脑如何处理多种感官信息。 研究人员将调查青蛙大脑内的神经活动，以更好地了解如何处理多种感官输入。 这些数据将有助于深入了解女性将多种信息类型整合到择偶决策中的神经过程。 最后，本研究将比较两个物种之间的雌性青蛙的行为和神经反应，tungara青蛙和（彼得的青蛙），酸浆。 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雌性对多种刺激的反应，产生了更广泛的影响，因此，研究人员将能够更好地了解影响多成分性表现进化的因素。此外，PI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，开发免费的研究工具;以及4）各种各样的结果，提高公众对动物行为的认识。在所有这些具有广泛影响的领域的贡献将继续在这个研究计划。

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.