Search

To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2009.10.015 Byline: Alexander T. Baugh (a)(b), Michael J. Ryan (a)(b)(c) Abstract: Signalling is a dynamic process that often occurs over brief timescales, particularly in the acoustic modality. Numerous studies of mate choice and acoustic communication have identified signal parameters essential for species recognition and mate preferences, although these studies have rarely considered the dynamic nature of these processes. Here we investigate mate choice behaviour in female tungara frogs, Physalaemus pustulosus, in response to temporally dynamic presentations of male advertisement calls. Our results demonstrate that females are sensitive to the location of preferred call types on a moment-to-moment basis, and that responses are influenced by the continued presence, complexity, sound pressure level and inherent attractiveness of individual male signals. In general, our results support the notion that decision making during mate choice is an open-ended process that is sensitive to interruption and persuasion from competing signallers. We show that for a species in which females actively compare multiple signallers simultaneously, the criterion that predicts the degree of commitment to an initial mate approach is whether there is a state change in the complexity of signals. Author Affiliation: (a) Section of Integrative Biology, The University of Texas, Austin, U.S.A. (b) Institute for Neuroscience, The University of Texas, Austin, U.S.A. (c) Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, P.O. Box 0943-03092, Balboa Ancon, Panama Article History: Received 2 April 2009; Revised 22 June 2009; Accepted 25 September 2009 Article Note: (miscellaneous) MS. number: A09-00204

To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2009.06.007 Byline: Drew Rendall (a), Michael J. Owren (b), Michael J. Ryan (c) Abstract: Animal communication studies often use analogies to human language and related constructs such as information encoding and transfer. This commonality is evident even when research goals are very different, for example when primate vocalizations are proposed to have word-like meaning, or sexually selected signals are proposed to convey information about a signaller's underlying quality. We consider some of the ambiguities and limitations inherent in such informational approaches to animal communication as background to advocating alternatives. The alternatives eschew language-based metaphors and broader informational constructs and focus instead on concrete details of signal design as they reflect and interact with established sensory, physiological and psychological processes that support signalling and responding in listeners. The alternatives we advocate also explicitly acknowledge the different roles and often divergent interests of signallers and perceivers that can yield fundamental asymmetries in signalling interactions, and they therefore shift the focus of interpretations of animal communication from informing others to influencing others. Author Affiliation: (a) Behavior and Evolution Research Group, University of Lethbridge, Canada (b) Department of Psychology, Georgia State University, U.S.A. (c) Section of Integrative Biology, University of Texas, U.S.A. Article History: Received 18 May 2009; Accepted 25 May 2009 Article Note: (miscellaneous) MS. number: 09-00322

To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2008.05.006 Byline: Rachel A. Page, Michael J. Ryan Abstract: The fringe-lipped bat, Trachops cirrhosus, uses frog mating calls to detect and locate its prey. The tungara frog, Physalaemus pustulosus, a preferred prey species of this bat, produces two types of sexual advertisement calls, simple and complex, and both female frogs and predatory bats prefer complex calls to simple ones. Complex calls differ from simple ones in that they contain chucks: short, broadband suffixes with distinct onsets and offsets, acoustic properties that should maximize binaural comparisons and facilitate localization. We investigated the hypothesis that frog-eating bats prefer the complex calls of tungara frogs to simple ones because they find complex calls easier to localize. We tested bats under experimental conditions that mirror the conditions they encounter in nature: we broadcast tungara frog calls with and without background noise and with and without intervening obstacles. We broadcast calls either continuously during the hunting approach or only prior to the bat's flight to mimic the conditions under which frogs have detected an approaching bat and ceased calling. Bats showed a trend for better localization performance of complex calls than of simple ones under all treatment conditions. We found significant differences in localization performance in some but not all levels of localization task complexity. This study is the first to offer evidence that an eavesdropping predator shows better localization performance for a preferred signal variant of its prey. Author Affiliation: (a) Section of Integrative Biology, University of Texas, Austin, U.S.A. (a ) Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Panama Article History: Received 3 November 2007; Revised 10 December 2007; Accepted 19 February 2008 Article Note: (miscellaneous) MS. number: A10904

To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2007.10.030 Byline: Deborah A. McLennan, Michael J. Ryan Abstract: Xiphophorus continens is one of two northern swordtail species that has only small, noncourting, sneaker males. In this study we discovered that female X. continens were strongly attracted to the scent of courting males of their close relative X. montezumae and that they preferred the odour of those males to the scent of conspecific males. The heterospecific attraction is asymmetric; female X. montezumae were not attracted to the scent of X. continens. These results suggest that the olfactory cue is in fact multicomponent, transmitting information about both the species identification (conspecific versus not a conspecific) and sexual status (sneaker male versus courting male) of the sender. These two 'bits' of information can interact in either a mutually reinforcing or an antagonist manner depending upon the choice being offered. Xiphophorus montezumae females choosing between X. montezumae/X. continens males are faced with mutually reinforcing cue components: 'conspecific+courting male' versus 'not a conspecific+sneaker male'. Xiphophorus continens females making the same choice, however, are faced with conflicting cue components: 'conspecific+sneaker male' versus 'not a conspecific+courting male'. We suggest that the strength of attraction to the conspecific based upon olfactory cues in these fishes represents the complex outcome of the female's attraction to the different components in the male-based cue. Author Affiliation: Section of Integrative Biology, University of Texas, Austin, U.S.A. Article History: Received 9 April 2007; Revised 7 July 2007; Accepted 3 October 2007 Article Note: (miscellaneous) MS. number: A10739R

To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2007.01.032 Byline: Raymond E. Engeszer, Laura Alberici Da Barbiano, Michael J. Ryan, David M. Parichy Abstract: The zebrafish has become a major model system for biomedical research and is an emerging model for the study of behaviour. Although adult zebrafish express a visually mediated shoaling preference, the onset of shoaling behaviour and of this preference is unknown. To assess the onset of these behaviours, we first manipulated the early social environment of larval zebrafish subjects, giving them three model shoaling partners of the same pigment phenotype. We then assayed the subjects' preferences using binary preference tests in which we presented subjects with two shoals, one shoal of fish showing the same pigment pattern phenotype as their models and another shoal with a radically different pigment pattern. To determine whether the visually mediated preference could be altered once it was established, we further manipulated the social environment of a number of subjects, rearing them with one model shoal and testing them, then changing their social consorts and retesting them. Our results show that larval zebrafish shoal early in their development, but do not show a shoaling preference until they are juveniles. Moreover, we found that the shoaling preference was stable, as changing the social environment of fish after they had acquired a preference did not change their preference. These findings will facilitate investigations into the mechanisms underlying social behaviour in this vertebrate model system. Author Affiliation: (a) Department of Biology, University of Washington, Seattle, U.S.A. (a ) Section of Integrative Biology, University of Texas, Austin, U.S.A. Article History: Received 3 November 2006; Revised 2 January 2007; Accepted 22 January 2007 Article Note: (miscellaneous) MS. number: A10613R

To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2006.10.018 Byline: Ximena E. Bernal (a), A. Stanley Rand (a ), Michael J. Ryan (a)(a ) Abstract: In many species, males advertise to both male and female audiences. Given the asymmetry in fitness costs of recognition errors in response to mating signals for the sexes, usually higher for females than males, males are expected to be more permissive than females in their responses to signals. Few studies, however, have investigated such differences and there is no consensus on which sex is more permissive to signal variation. We examined the evoked vocal responses of male tungara frogs, Physalaemus pustulosus, to 14 species of heterospecific and ancestral male mating calls to evaluate the influence of call similarity and phylogenetic distance on their responses. We also compared male calling responses to female phonotactic responses to examine the propensity of response errors between the sexes. Recognition errors were higher for males than females, as predicted by the different costs associated with recognition errors for each sex. Males responded to the calls of most species with mating calls, and produced aggressive calls in response to two other heterospecific/ancestral calls. The responses of males were explained by phylogenetic distance but not by overall call similarity. Similarly, females were more likely to show phonotaxis to calls of species and ancestors that were more closely related. Therefore, evolutionary history has left a perceptual footprint on the brain of both sexes but the details seem to differ. We discuss proximate reasons underlying sexual differences in receiver permissiveness in tungara frogs and potential factors leading to their evolution. Author Affiliation: (a) Section of Integrative Biology, University of Texas at Austin, U.S.A. (a ) Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Panama, U.S.A. Article History: Received 28 June 2006; Revised 3 September 2006; Accepted 30 October 2006 Article Note: (miscellaneous) MS. number: A10487R

To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2005.11.010 Byline: Mark Kirkpatrick, A. Stanley Rand, Michael J. Ryan Abstract: We identify several fundamental properties of how females choose mates and propose statistical methods to test hypotheses about them. Virtually, all studies of mate choice have implicitly assumed that choice involves what we call strict preference. By that we mean that all the properties of a stimulus can be reduced to a single preference value that is independent of other stimuli, and that the stronger a female's preference for a male, the more likely she is to choose him. An important consequence of strict preference is that it guarantees that females cannot show intransitive choice (where male X.sub.1 is preferred over male X.sub.2, and X.sub.2 over X.sub.3, but X.sub.3 is preferred over X.sub.1). We find general conditions for the strict preference paradigm to apply in the simple situation where females choose between two potential mates. We illustrate how these conditions can be tested statistically using data on mate choice in tungara frogs, Physalaemus pustulosus. The results were not consistent with any of the standard models for strict preference. On the other hand, we also failed to find statistical support for intransitive choice. We suggest that understanding mate choice will require deeper analysis of the most basic properties of the choice rules. Author Affiliation: (a) Section of Integrative Biology, University of Texas at Austin, U.S.A. (a ) Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Balboa, Panama Article History: Received 12 July 2005; Revised 12 October 2005; Accepted 10 November 2005 Article Note: (miscellaneous) MS. number: A10206

To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2005.02.005 Byline: Gil G. Rosenthal, Michael J. Ryan Abstract: Decisions about joining social groups are often contingent on one's own phenotypic characteristics and those of existing group members. Zebrafish and their allies (genus Danio) vary substantially in the expression of conspicuous lateral stripes. We presented wild-type zebrafish (D. rerio), two artificially selected D. rerio strains with reduced stripe expression, as well as the stripeless D. albolineatus and the striped D. nigrofasciatus, with simultaneous choices between synthetic, computer-animated shoals of stripeless and striped Danio. Each species and strain of Danio preferred the phenotype that most resembled its own, with a strong preference for striped stimuli by fish with dark-stripe phenotypes, and a strong preference for no stripes by fish lacking stripes. Stripes are therefore a key shoaling cue in Danio. Individuals appear to acquire a general preference for stripes, or no stripes, as a consequence of experience with a specific stripe phenotype. Author Affiliation: (*) Boston University Marine Program and Department of Biology, Boston University, U.S.A. (a ) Section of Integrative Biology, University of Texas at Austin, U.S.A. Article History: Received 20 October 2004; Revised 31 December 2004; Accepted 2 February 2005 Article Note: (miscellaneous) MS. number: A10019

To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2004.05.016 Byline: Kathleen S. Lynch, A. Stanely Rand, Michael J. Ryan, Walter Wilczynski Abstract: Flexibility in female mate choice occurs over a range of timescales. We examined this plasticity over the course of a single breeding cycle using phonotaxis tests that assay acoustic-based mating preferences of female tungara frogs, Physalaemus pustulosus. Tests were performed throughout three reproductive stages: unamplexed, amplexed and postmated. We tested whether the approach of the time at which a female needs to release her eggs (i.e. amplexed stage) influences her mate decisions. We examined three aspects of female mate choice behaviour: receptivity, permissiveness and discrimination. We considered a female receptive if she accepted a conspecific male's call, permissive if she accepted a call that was less attractive than a conspecific call and discriminating if she maintained her preference for a 'whine-chuck' over a 'whine'. Our results show that the proportion of females responding receptively and permissively peaks during the amplexed stage. Individual females also increase receptive and permissive responses in the amplexed stage. Furthermore, time to respond to mate signals is lowest in the amplexed stage. The increase in permissive mate decisions was not associated with a decrease in the probability of expressing discriminatory behaviour. We suggest that the increase in permissive mate choice is due to a decrease in female choosiness, that is, a lowering of her threshold for accepting unattractive calls, as her receptivity increases. This study provides empirical support for theoretical models predicting that females will reduce their threshold criteria for choosing mates as critical time points approach. Author Affiliation: (*) Institute for Neuroscience, University of Texas, Austin, U.S.A. (a ) Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Balboa, Panama (a ) Section of Integrative Biology, University of Texas, Austin, U.S.A. (As.) Department of Psychology, University of Texas, Austin, U.S.A. Article History: Received 4 September 2003; Revised 10 November 2003; Accepted 4 May 2004 Article Note: (miscellaneous) MS. number: A9693R

To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2004.01.020 Byline: Nicole M. Kime, Sabrina S. Burmeister, Michael J. Ryan Abstract: Male cricket frogs produce only one type of call, the advertisement call, which both attracts females and repels rival males. The temporal and spectral structure of this call varies in a graded fashion with social context: males increase the temporal complexity and decrease the dominant frequency of their advertisement calls when interacting with neighbouring males. Previous studies of male behaviour suggested that vocal escalation signals fighting ability or aggressive intent. In this study, we examined an alternative hypothesis for the function of vocal escalation, that it increases a male's relative attractiveness to females when other males are nearby. We tested female cricket frogs for phonotactic preferences with respect to spectral and temporal call characters. Females did not show preferences for call dominant frequency, although they tended to choose calls with dominant frequencies near the population mean over calls with high or low dominant frequencies. Females preferred temporal call characters representative of interacting males to the temporal characters of undisturbed males. Males may use changes in temporal call characters to facultatively increase their relative attractiveness to females in the presence of other males. Author Affiliation: (*) Section of Integrative Biology, University of Texas at Austin, U.S.A. (a ) Institute for Neuroscience, University of Texas at Austin, U.S.A. Article History: Received 15 April 2003; Revised 26 August 2003; Accepted 7 January 2004 Article Note: (miscellaneous) MS. number: A9594

A new class of goal programming models defines economies of scale and scope first with reference to distribution models and then with reference to more general linear and nonlinear goal programming models. It was found that in every case the corresponding optimal solutions would then yield implications for the net effects of multilevel regulatory regimes.

The preference of female pygmy swordtails, Xiphophoris nigrensis, for the male sword is examined. Results show a lack of preference for the male sword, at least under non-ultraviolet conditions, which may be a result of predation risk, a change in the environment rendering the signal imperceptible, or selection against mating with heterospecifics.

Development of more for less and more for nothing concepts to interpret the distribution models used in economics research is discussed. Additional information on the above mentioned models is also included.

The advertisement calls of male cricket frogs varies according to whether they are responding to synthetic calls desgined to be 'aggressive' or 'attractive'. Male frogs respond more agressively to aggressive calls. The difference between the types of call was temporal rather than spectral. The order of the calls affected the frogs' behavior, and if the initial call was agressive, the frog was more likely to be aggressive. but this was less true if the initial call was attractive, in which case the frog could make the same response to both stimuli.

Sexual differences in responses to signal variation in male tungara frogs, Physalaemus pustulous, were investigated using evoked response as a bioassay. A whine-chuck was found to evoke greater response from males than a simple whine. Both male and female display enhanced responsiveness when a variety of artificial and heterospecific stimuli were added to the conspecific whine. These findings suggest that both sexes have a bias towards enhanced response to call complexity that is more general than response towards the whine plus chucks.

An intervening duality approach can be utilized to model explicitly fair die casting situations. It was shown that intervening duality approach can offer straightforward motivations for hypothesis formulated by Tversky and Kahneman and others, which claim that subjects' favorable and unfavorable perceptions of probabilities related to relatively packed outcomes will be weakly superadditive and weakly subadditive, respectively. The usefulness of generalized strategic equivalence in introducing and analyzing tracer games was established.

Female swordtail Xiphophorus cortezi seem to gain information about species identity from the olfactory stimulus provided by conspecific and closely related heterospecific males. This information is useful in the early stages of mate recognition. However, it appears that the olfactory stimulus is not involved in mate preference. It is clear that both the chemical cue and the ability of the female to detect and preferentially respond to it are developing extremely quickly in northern swordtails.

Males of Poecilia latipinna and Poecilia mexicana species prefer conspecific females to female Amazon mollies for copulation. However, this preference is lower in Poecilia mexicana than in Peocilia latipinna. Both species of males can distinguish between conspecific females and Amazon mollies. Male Poecilia latipinna are reluctant to mate with females of heterospecific species, male Peocilia mexicana favor Poecilia formosa over female Poecilia latipinna. Male Poecilia mexicana's attraction to Peocilia formosa may, therefore, be related to maternally derived genetic component.

Direct selection or drift plays the major role in the evolution of female mating preferences among different populations of Xiphophorus pygmaeus. A series of three studies spanning over five years indicate that female preference for large male body size vary between populations. The analysis of the distribution and subsequent spread of large X. pygmaeus shows that female preference for large male body size is negatively correlated with male traits of large size.

The response to a male signal in the northern swordtail fish, Xiphophorus, depends on the sex of the receiver. The signal, a pattern of vertical bars helps in attracting females and discouraging rival males. The male response and male signal coevolve more closely when compared to the response of the female to the same male signal. Congruency between the male response and signal occurs in X. multilineatus and X. nigrensis whereas the female response and the same signal are congruent in X. multilineatus.

The sexual-asexual mating complex of sailfin mollies, Poecilia latipinna, and Amazon mollies, P. formosa, depends on the close proximity of aggregated individuals or shoals. P. formosa is gynogenetic and is inseminated by male P. latipinna. The females are unable to discriminate species which results in mate copying. Females of both the species prefer associating with a conspecific rather than a heterospecific group. However, they prefer to associate with a larger heterospecific group rather than a smaller conspecific one.

A constrained game theoretic formulation of the matching pennies game is discussed to introduce the concept of intervening duality into linear programming models of two-person constant-sum games. Specifically, it is shown that the idea of intervening duality permits the formal characterization of coin tossing games in which two individuals both perceive a coin as fair but also 'biased toward themselves.'

An examination of female choice in the Neotropical frog Physalaemus pustulosus reveals that activation in a high-frequency region of the whine's fundamental between 900 and 560 Hz, followed by activation in a partially overlapping low frequency region between 640 and 500 Hz is essential and sufficient for call identification. The study compared full whines with modified whines and clicks. No one frequency or frequency band within each area is significant for identification and the identification system tolerates silent gaps and decreasing length of the signal.

An analysis of the mating calls of two groups of anuran amphibians, the Bufo and the Pseudacris, revealed differences in their call characteristics. The study of the acoustic characters and sound production showed that female bufonids preferred longer and faster call rates, while calls of female hylids were characterized by rapid changes in frequency modulation. The results suggest that call patterns of the two groups can be used as basis for studying their evolution.

Different models incorporated within a decision theory framework in uncertain conditions can be represented and generalized using a class of constrained games. Such an approach allows for the evaluation of particular strategy choices as well as the identification of variations in decision-making processes. An in-depth discussion of the approach is presented.

The surgical management of complications after total hip arthroplasty (THA) necessitates accurate identification of the femoral implant manufacturer and model. Automated image processing using deep learning has been previously developed and internally validated; however, external validation is necessary prior to responsible application of artificial intelligence (AI)–based technologies. We trained, validated, and externally tested a deep learning system to classify femoral-sided THA implants as one of the 8 models from 2 manufacturers derived from 2,954 original, deidentified, retrospectively collected anteroposterior plain radiographs across 3 academic referral centers and 13 surgeons. From these radiographs, 2,117 were used for training, 249 for validation, and 588 for external testing. Augmentation was applied to the training set (n = 2,117,000) to increase model robustness. Performance was evaluated by area under the receiver operating characteristic curve, sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy. Implant identification processing speed was calculated. The training and testing sets were drawn from statistically different populations of implants (P <.001). After 1,000 training epochs by the deep learning system, the system discriminated 8 implant models with a mean area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of 0.991, accuracy of 97.9%, sensitivity of 88.6%, and specificity of 98.9% in the external testing dataset of 588 anteroposterior radiographs. The software classified implants at a mean speed of 0.02 seconds per image. An AI-based software demonstrated excellent internal and external validation. Although continued surveillance is necessary with implant library expansion, this software represents responsible and meaningful clinical application of AI with immediate potential to globally scale and assist in preoperative planning prior to revision THA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]