scholarly journals Animal personality as a cause and consequence of contest behaviour

2015 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 20141007 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Briffa ◽  
Lynne U. Sneddon ◽  
Alastair J. Wilson
Keyword(s):  
Individual Variation ◽  
Animal Personality ◽  
Limited Resources ◽  
Physiological Data ◽  
Endocrine Control ◽  
Proximate Mechanisms ◽  
Behavioural Syndromes ◽  
Contest Behaviour ◽  
Animal Personalities ◽  
Plastic Responses

We review the evidence for a link between consistent among-individual variation in behaviour (animal personality) and the ability to win contests over limited resources. Explorative and bold behaviours often covary with contest behaviour and outcome, although there is evidence that the structure of these ‘behavioural syndromes' can change across situations. Aggression itself is typically repeatable, but also subject to high within-individual variation as a consequence of plastic responses to previous fight outcomes and opponent traits. Common proximate mechanisms (gene expression, endocrine control and metabolic rates) may underpin variation in both contest behaviour and general personality traits. Given the theoretical links between the evolution of fighting and of personality, we suggest that longitudinal studies of contest behaviour, combining behavioural and physiological data, would be a useful context for the study of animal personalities.

scholarly journals Parasitism and the evolutionary ecology of animal personality

2010 ◽  
Vol 365 (1560) ◽  
pp. 4077-4088 ◽  
Author(s):  
Iain Barber ◽  
Niels J. Dingemanse
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Personality Traits ◽  
Evolutionary Ecology ◽  
Resource Competition ◽  
Ecological Factors ◽  
Animal Personality ◽  
Behavioural Syndromes ◽  
Parasite Infections ◽  
Animal Personalities ◽  
Host Behaviour

The ecological factors responsible for the evolution of individual differences in animal personality (consistent individual differences in the same behaviour across time and contexts) are currently the subject of intense debate. A limited number of ecological factors have been investigated to date, with most attention focusing on the roles of resource competition and predation. We suggest here that parasitism may play a potentially important, but largely overlooked, role in the evolution of animal personalities. We identify two major routes by which parasites might influence the evolution of animal personality. First, because the risk of acquiring parasites can be influenced by an individual's behavioural type, local parasite regimes may impose selection on personality traits and behavioural syndromes (correlations between personality traits). Second, because parasite infections have consequences for aspects of host ‘state’, parasites might induce the evolution of individual differences in certain types of host behaviour in populations with endemic infections. Also, because infection often leads to specific changes in axes of personality, parasite infections have the potential to decouple behavioural syndromes. Host–parasite systems therefore provide researchers with valuable tools to study personality variation and behavioural syndromes from a proximate and ultimate perspective.

Personality and behavioral syndromes in insects and spiders

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carl N. Keiser ◽  
James L.L. Lichtenstein ◽  
Colin M. Wright ◽  
Gregory T. Chism ◽  
Jonathan N. Pruitt
Keyword(s):  
Animal Behavior ◽  
Individual Variation ◽  
Insect Behavior ◽  
Behavioral Syndromes ◽  
Ecological Consequences ◽  
Behavioral Variation ◽  
Terrestrial Arthropods ◽  
Functional Differences ◽  
Behavioral Tendencies ◽  
Animal Personalities

The field of animal behavior has experienced a surge of studies focusing on functional differences among individuals in their behavioral tendencies (‘animal personalities’) and the relationships between different axes of behavioral variation (‘behavioral syndromes’). Many important developments in this field have arisen through research using insects and other terrestrial arthropods, in part, because they present the opportunity to test hypotheses not accessible in other taxa. This chapter reviews how studies on insects and spiders have advanced the study of animal personalities by describing the mechanisms underlying the emergence of individual variation and their ecological consequences. Furthermore, studies accounting for animal personalities can expand our understanding of phenomena in insect science like metamorphosis, eusociality, and applied insect behavior. In addition, this chapter serves to highlight some of the most exciting issues at the forefront of our field and to inspire entomologists and behaviorists alike to seek the answers to these questions.

scholarly journals Understanding the evolution of personality requires the study of mechanisms behind the development and life history of personality traits

2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 20170740 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fritz Trillmich ◽  
Thorben Müller ◽  
Caroline Müller
Keyword(s):  
Regulatory Networks ◽  
Personality Development ◽  
Animal Personality ◽  
Individual Variability ◽  
Genetic Regulatory Networks ◽  
Emergent Properties ◽  
Proximate Mechanisms ◽  
History Of ◽  
Behavioural Phenotypes ◽  
Epigenetic Processes

Research on animal personality explains the coexistence of distinct behavioural phenotypes within a species and demonstrates limits to individual plasticity. However, the mechanisms guiding the lifelong development of personality should receive more attention, because many elements of personality are emergent properties of interactions between the environment and an individual's genetic background. In these interactions, mechanisms (e.g. genetic regulatory networks, epigenetic processes and neuroendocrine regulation) influencing personality may be modified. An approach integrating proximate mechanisms with a view of lifelong personality development will crucially improve understanding stability, plasticity and inter-individual variability of personalities and clarify the effects of selection on the phenomenon.

scholarly journals Demystifying animal ‘personality’ (or not): why individual variation matters to experimental biologists

2016 ◽  
Vol 219 (24) ◽  
pp. 3832-3843 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dominique G. Roche ◽  
Vincent Careau ◽  
Sandra A. Binning
Keyword(s):  
Individual Variation ◽  
Animal Personality

scholarly journals Evolutionary causes and consequences of consistent individual variation in cooperative behaviour

2010 ◽  
Vol 365 (1553) ◽  
pp. 2751-2764 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ralph Bergmüller ◽  
Roger Schürch ◽  
Ian M. Hamilton
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Individual Variation ◽  
Animal Personality ◽  
Evolutionary Stability ◽  
Behavioural Syndrome ◽  
Phenotypic Traits ◽  
Cooperative Behaviour ◽  
Heritable Variation ◽  
Fitness Consequences

Behaviour is typically regarded as among the most flexible of animal phenotypic traits. In particular, expression of cooperative behaviour is often assumed to be conditional upon the behaviours of others. This flexibility is a key component of many hypothesized mechanisms favouring the evolution of cooperative behaviour. However, evidence shows that cooperative behaviours are often less flexible than expected and that, in many species, individuals show consistent differences in the amount and type of cooperative and non-cooperative behaviours displayed. This phenomenon is known as ‘animal personality’ or a ‘behavioural syndrome’. Animal personality is evolutionarily relevant, as it typically shows heritable variation and can entail fitness consequences, and hence, is subject to evolutionary change. Here, we review the empirical evidence for individual variation in cooperative behaviour across taxa, we examine the evolutionary processes that have been invoked to explain the existence of individual variation in cooperative behaviour and we discuss the consequences of consistent individual differences on the evolutionary stability of cooperation. We highlight that consistent individual variation in cooperativeness can both stabilize or disrupt cooperation in populations. We conclude that recognizing the existence of consistent individual differences in cooperativeness is essential for an understanding of the evolution and prevalence of cooperation.

Individual differences in aggressive and peaceful behavior: new insights and future directions

Behaviour ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 153 (9-11) ◽  
pp. 1139-1169 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christine E. Webb ◽  
Peter Verbeek
Keyword(s):  
Biological Sciences ◽  
Individual Differences ◽  
Individual Variation ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Personality Research ◽  
Social Species ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Variation Patterns ◽  
Animal Personalities ◽  
Future Work

Consistent individual differences in animal behaviour are an increasingly common focus of research across various behavioural and biological sciences. Such ‘animal personalities’ comprise a diverse repertoire of behavioural tendencies, recently expanding to incorporate the social domain. Aggression and peace, hallmarks of many social systems including that of humans, warrant integration with this literature. Specifically, animal personality research should consider the potential role of stable conflict and post-conflict behavioural tendencies. We focus our discussion primarily on examples in nonhuman primates and humans, but suggest that individual variation patterns are relevant for any social species in which these phenomena exist. In highly gregarious species, an individual’s conflict and post-conflict tendencies can affect the strength and stability of its social bonds. Because social relationships in turn impact survival and reproductive success, we also encourage future work to investigate the ultimate (i.e., fitness-relevant) consequences of individual variation in aggressive and peaceful behaviour.

Can cognitive and motor function explain inter-individual variation in plastic responses to M1 anodal tDCS in older adults?

2015 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 364
Author(s):  
R. Puri ◽  
M.R. Hinder ◽  
J.J. Summers
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Motor Function ◽  
Individual Variation ◽  
Anodal Tdcs ◽  
Plastic Responses

scholarly journals Diverse societies are more productive: a lesson from ants

2012 ◽  
Vol 279 (1736) ◽  
pp. 2142-2150 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andreas P. Modlmeier ◽  
Julia E. Liebmann ◽  
Susanne Foitzik
Keyword(s):  
Division Of Labour ◽  
Brood Care ◽  
Behavioural Syndromes ◽  
Temnothorax Longispinosus ◽  
Fitness Consequences ◽  
Novel Objects ◽  
Group Members ◽  
New Generation ◽  
Animal Personalities ◽  
Over Time

The fitness consequences of animal personalities (also known as behavioural syndromes) have recently been studied in several solitary species. However, the adaptive significance of collective personalities in social insects and especially of behavioural variation among group members remains largely unexplored. Although intracolonial behavioural variation is an important component of division of labour, and as such a key feature for the success of societies, empirical links between behavioural variation and fitness are scarce. We investigated aggression, exploration and brood care behaviour in Temnothorax longispinosus ant colonies. We focused on two distinct aspects: intercolonial variability and its consistency across time and contexts, and intracolonial variability and its influence on productivity. Aggressiveness was consistent over four to five months with a new generation of workers emerging in between trial series. Other behaviours were not consistent over time. Exploration of novel environments responded to the sequence of assays: colonies were faster in discovering when workers previously encountered opponents in aggression experiments. Suites of correlated behaviours (e.g. aggression–exploration syndrome) present in the first series did not persist over time. Finally, colonies with more intracolonial behavioural variation in brood care and exploration of novel objects were more productive under standardized conditions than colonies with less variation.

scholarly journals Analysis across diverse fish species highlights no conserved transcriptome signature for proactive behaviour.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sonia Rey Planellas ◽  
Xingkun Jin ◽  
Borge Damsgard ◽  
Marie-Laure Begout ◽  
Simon Mackenzie
Keyword(s):  
Fish Species ◽  
Gene Networks ◽  
Regulatory Gene ◽  
Animal Personality ◽  
Molecular Signatures ◽  
Mrna Transcript ◽  
Brain Transcriptome ◽  
Proactive Behaviour ◽  
Animal Personalities ◽  
Transcriptome Signature

Abstract Background Consistent individual differences in behaviour, known as animal personalities, have been demonstrated within and across species. In fish, studies applying an animal personality approach have been used to resolve variation in physiological and molecular data suggesting a linkage, genotype-phenotype, between behaviour and transcriptome regulation. In this study, using three fish species (zebrafish; Danio rerio, Atlantic salmon; Salmo salar and European sea bass; Dicentrarchus labrax), we firstly address whether personality-specific mRNA transcript abundances are transferrable across distantly-related fish species and secondly whether a proactive transcriptome signature is conserved across all three species. Results Previous zebrafish transcriptome data was used as a foundation to produce a curated list of mRNA transcripts related to animal personality across all three species. mRNA transcript copy numbers for selected gene targets show that differential mRNA transcript abundance in the brain appears to be partially conserved across species relative to personality type. Secondly, we performed RNA-Seq using whole brains from S. salar and D. labrax scoring positively for both behavioural and molecular assays for proactive behaviour. We further enriched this dataset by incorporating a zebrafish brain transcriptome dataset specific to the proactive phenotype. Our results indicate that cross-species molecular signatures related to proactive behaviour are functionally conserved where shared functional pathways suggest that evolutionary convergence may be more important than individual mRNAs. Conclusions Our data supports the proposition that highly polygenic clusters of genes, with small additive effects, likely support the underpinning molecular variation related to the animal personalities in the fish used in this study. The polygenic nature of the proactive brain transcriptome across all three species questions the existence of specific molecular signatures for proactive behaviour, at least at the granularity of specific regulatory gene modules, level of genes, gene networks and molecular functions.

scholarly journals Analysis across diverse fish species highlights no conserved transcriptome signature for proactive behaviour

BMC Genomics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sonia Rey ◽  
Xingkun Jin ◽  
Børge Damsgård ◽  
Marie-Laure Bégout ◽  
Simon Mackenzie
Keyword(s):  
Fish Species ◽  
Gene Networks ◽  
Regulatory Gene ◽  
Animal Personality ◽  
Molecular Signatures ◽  
Mrna Transcript ◽  
Brain Transcriptome ◽  
Proactive Behaviour ◽  
Animal Personalities ◽  
Transcriptome Signature

Abstract Background Consistent individual differences in behaviour, known as animal personalities, have been demonstrated within and across species. In fish, studies applying an animal personality approach have been used to resolve variation in physiological and molecular data suggesting a linkage, genotype-phenotype, between behaviour and transcriptome regulation. In this study, using three fish species (zebrafish; Danio rerio, Atlantic salmon; Salmo salar and European sea bass; Dicentrarchus labrax), we firstly address whether personality-specific mRNA transcript abundances are transferrable across distantly-related fish species and secondly whether a proactive transcriptome signature is conserved across all three species. Results Previous zebrafish transcriptome data was used as a foundation to produce a curated list of mRNA transcripts related to animal personality across all three species. mRNA transcript copy numbers for selected gene targets show that differential mRNA transcript abundance in the brain appears to be partially conserved across species relative to personality type. Secondly, we performed RNA-Seq using whole brains from S. salar and D. labrax scoring positively for both behavioural and molecular assays for proactive behaviour. We further enriched this dataset by incorporating a zebrafish brain transcriptome dataset specific to the proactive phenotype. Our results indicate that cross-species molecular signatures related to proactive behaviour are functionally conserved where shared functional pathways suggest that evolutionary convergence may be more important than individual mRNAs. Conclusions Our data supports the proposition that highly polygenic clusters of genes, with small additive effects, likely support the underpinning molecular variation related to the animal personalities in the fish used in this study. The polygenic nature of the proactive brain transcriptome across all three species questions the existence of specific molecular signatures for proactive behaviour, at least at the granularity of specific regulatory gene modules, level of genes, gene networks and molecular functions.

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