Taxon matters: promoting integrative studies of social behavior: NESCent Working Group on Integrative Models of Vertebrate Sociality: Evolution, Mechanisms, and Emergent Properties

Michael Taborsky; Hans A Hofmann; Annaliese K Beery; Daniel T Blumstein; Loren D Hayes; Eileen A Lacey; Emília P Martins; Steven M Phelps; Nancy G Solomon; Dustin R Rubenstein

doi:10.1016/j.tins.2015.01.004

Taxon matters: promoting integrative studies of social behavior: NESCent Working Group on Integrative Models of Vertebrate Sociality: Evolution, Mechanisms, and Emergent Properties

Trends Neurosci. 2015 Apr;38(4):189-91. doi: 10.1016/j.tins.2015.01.004. Epub 2015 Feb 2.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Ecology and Evolution, Division of Behavioural Ecology, University of Bern, Wohlenstrasse 50a, 3032 Hinterkappelen, Switzerland. Electronic address: michael.taborsky@iee.unibe.ch.
² Department of Integrative Biology, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA.
³ Department of Psychology and Program in Neuroscience, Smith College, Northampton, MA, USA.
⁴ Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, 621 Young Drive South, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1606, USA.
⁵ Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, Chattanooga, TN, USA.
⁶ Museum of Vertebrate Zoology and Department of Integrative Biology, University of California at Berkeley, 3101 Valley Life Sciences Building, Berkeley, CA 94720-3160, USA.
⁷ Department of Biology, Indiana University, Bloomington IN 47405, USA.
⁸ Department of Biology, Miami University, Oxford, OH 45056, USA.
⁹ Department of Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Biology, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA.

PMID: 25656466
DOI: 10.1016/j.tins.2015.01.004

Abstract

The neural and molecular mechanisms underlying social behavior - including their functional significance and evolution - can only be fully understood using data obtained under multiple social, environmental, and physiological conditions. Understanding the complexity of social behavior requires integration across levels of analysis in both laboratory and field settings. However, there is currently a disconnect between the systems studied in the laboratory versus the field. We argue that recent conceptual and technical advances provide exciting new opportunities to close this gap by making non-model organisms accessible to modern approaches in both laboratory and nature.

Keywords: ecology; evolution; integration; model species; neural and endocrine mechanisms; sociality.

Publication types

Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.
Review

MeSH terms

Animals
Behavior, Animal / physiology*
Biological Evolution*
Humans
Social Behavior*
Vertebrates*

Grants and funding

1R15HD075222/HD/NICHD NIH HHS/United States