Tibbetts Elizabeth A
Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
Integr Comp Biol. 2014 Oct;54(4):578-90. doi: 10.1093/icb/icu083. Epub 2014 Jun 17.
Much research on animal communication has addressed how costs such as social costs or physiological costs favor the accuracy of signals. Previous work has largely considered these costs separately, but we may be missing essential connections by studying costs in isolation. After all, social interactions produce rapid changes in hormone titers which can then affect individual behavior and physiology. As a result, social costs are likely to have widespread physiological consequences. Here, I present a new perspective on the factors that maintain honest signals by describing how the interplay between social costs and physiological costs may maintain an accurate link between an animal's abilities and ornament elaboration. I outline three specific mechanisms by which the interaction between social behavior and hormones could favor honest signals and present specific predictions for each of the three models. Then, I review how ornaments alter agonistic behavior, agonistic behavior influences hormones, and how these hormonal effects influence fitness. I also describe the few previous studies that have directly tested how ornaments influence hormones. Finally, opportunities for future work are discussed. Considering the interaction between social behavior and physiology may address some challenges associated with both social and physiological models of costs. Understanding the dynamic feedbacks between physiology and social costs has potential to transform our understanding of the stability of animals' communication systems.
许多关于动物交流的研究都探讨了诸如社会成本或生理成本等代价如何促进信号的准确性。以往的研究大多分别考虑这些成本，但我们通过孤立地研究成本可能会忽略一些重要的联系。毕竟，社会互动会使激素水平迅速变化，进而影响个体行为和生理。因此，社会成本可能会产生广泛的生理后果。在这里，我通过描述社会成本和生理成本之间的相互作用如何维持动物能力与装饰精致程度之间的准确联系，提出了一个关于维持诚实信号的因素的新视角。我概述了社会行为与激素之间的相互作用有利于诚实信号的三种具体机制，并对这三种模型分别提出了具体预测。然后，我回顾了装饰如何改变争斗行为、争斗行为如何影响激素，以及这些激素效应如何影响适应性。我还描述了之前少数直接测试装饰如何影响激素的研究。最后，讨论了未来研究的机会。考虑社会行为与生理之间的相互作用可能会解决一些与社会成本和生理成本模型相关的挑战。理解生理与社会成本之间的动态反馈有可能改变我们对动物交流系统稳定性的理解。
