Ritchie Graham R S, Kirby Simon, Hawkey David J C
Language Evolution and Computation Research Unit, University of Edinburgh, George Square, Edinburgh EH8 9LL, UK.
J Theor Biol. 2008 Apr 21;251(4):570-83. doi: 10.1016/j.jtbi.2007.12.013. Epub 2007 Dec 27.
The 'developmental stress hypothesis' attempts to provide a functional explanation of the evolutionary maintenance of song learning in songbirds. It argues that song learning can be viewed as an indicator mechanism that allows females to use learned features of song as a window on a male's early development, a potentially stressful period that may have long-term phenotypic effects. In this paper we formally model this hypothesis for the first time, presenting a population genetic model that takes into account both the evolution of genetic learning preferences and cultural transmission of song. The models demonstrate that a preference for song types that reveal developmental stress can evolve in a population, and that cultural transmission of these song types can be stable, lending more support to the hypothesis.
“发育应激假说”试图对鸣禽歌声学习在进化过程中的维持提供一种功能性解释。该假说认为，歌声学习可被视为一种指示机制，使雌性能够将歌声的习得特征作为了解雄性早期发育的窗口，而早期发育是一个可能具有长期表型效应的潜在应激期。在本文中，我们首次对这一假说进行了形式化建模，提出了一个群体遗传模型，该模型同时考虑了基因学习偏好的进化和歌声的文化传播。模型表明，对揭示发育应激的歌声类型的偏好能够在种群中进化，并且这些歌声类型的文化传播可以是稳定的，这为该假说提供了更多支持。
