scholarly journals Conservation of multivariate female preference functions and preference mechanisms in three species of trilling field crickets

2015 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 630-641 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. Blankers ◽  
R. M. Hennig ◽  
D. A. Gray
Keyword(s):  
Female Preference ◽  
Field Crickets ◽  
Preference Functions

scholarly journals Multivariate female preference tests reveal latent perceptual biases

2016 ◽  
Vol 283 (1842) ◽  
pp. 20161972 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. A. Gray ◽  
E. Gabel ◽  
T. Blankers ◽  
R. M. Hennig
Keyword(s):  
Alternative Stable States ◽  
Female Preference ◽  
Perceptual Bias ◽  
Stable States ◽  
Field Crickets ◽  
Female Preferences ◽  
Slow Pulse ◽  
Preference Functions ◽  
Indirect Fitness ◽  
Fitness Benefits

The question of why males of many species produce elaborate mating displays has now been largely resolved: females prefer to mate with males that produce such displays. However, the question of why females prefer such displays has been controversial, with an emerging consensus that such displays often provide information to females about the direct fitness benefits that males provide to females and/or the indirect fitness benefits provided to offspring. Alternative explanations, such as production of arbitrarily attractive sons or innate pre-existing female sensory or perceptual bias, have also received support in certain taxa. Here, we describe multivariate female preference functions for male acoustic traits in two chirping species of field crickets with slow pulse rates; our data reveal cryptic female preferences for long trills that have not previously been observed in other chirping species. The trill preferences are evolutionarily pre-existing in the sense that males have not (yet?) exploited them, and they coexist with chirp preferences as alternative stable states within female song preference space. We discuss escape from neuronal adaptation as a possible mechanism underlying such latent preferences.

scholarly journals Female preference functions based on call duration in the gray tree frog (Hyla versicolor)

2000 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 663-669 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Carl Gerhardt ◽  
Steven D. Tanner ◽  
Candice M. Corrigan ◽  
Hilary C. Walton
Keyword(s):  
Female Preference ◽  
Hyla Versicolor ◽  
Tree Frog ◽  
Call Duration ◽  
Preference Functions ◽  
Gray Tree Frog

scholarly journals Genetic Analysis of Female Preference Functions as Function‐Valued Traits

2008 ◽  
Vol 172 (2) ◽  
pp. 194-202 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katrina McGuigan ◽  
Anna Van Homrigh ◽  
Mark W. Blows
Keyword(s):  
Genetic Analysis ◽  
Female Preference ◽  
Preference Functions

scholarly journals Testing synaptic plasticity in dynamic mate choice decisions: N -methyl d -aspartate receptor blockade disrupts female preference

2014 ◽  
Vol 281 (1785) ◽  
pp. 20140047 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary E. Ramsey ◽  
Wendy Vu ◽  
Molly E. Cummings
Keyword(s):  
Synaptic Plasticity ◽  
Mate Choice ◽  
Expression Patterns ◽  
Female Preference ◽  
Behavioural Plasticity ◽  
Aspartate Receptor ◽  
Poeciliid Fish ◽  
Preference Functions ◽  
Context Specific ◽  
Social Behaviours

Social behaviours such as mate choice require context-specific responses, often with evolutionary consequences. Increasing evidence indicates that the behavioural plasticity associated with mate choice involves learning. For example, poeciliids show age-dependent changes in female preference functions and express synaptic-plasticity-associated molecular markers during mate choice. Here, we test whether social cognition is necessary for female preference behaviour by blocking the central player in synaptic plasticity, NMDAR ( N -methyl d -aspartate receptor), in a poeciliid fish, Xiphophorus nigrensis . After subchronic exposure to NMDAR antagonist MK-801, female preference behaviours towards males were dramatically reduced. Overall activity levels were unaffected, but there was a directional shift from ‘social’ behaviours towards neutral activity. Multivariate gene expression patterns significantly discriminated between females with normal versus disrupted plasticity processes and correlated with preference behaviours—not general activity. Furthermore, molecular patterns support a distinction between ‘preference’ (e.g. neuroserpin , neuroligin-3 , NMDAR ) and ‘sociality’ ( isotocin and vasotocin ) gene clusters, highlighting a possible conservation between NMDAR disruption and nonapeptides in modulating behaviour. Our results suggest that mate preference may involve greater social memory processing than overall sociality, and that poeciliid preference functions integrate synaptic-plasticity-oriented ‘preference’ pathways with overall sociality to invoke dynamic, context-specific responses towards favoured males and away from unfavoured males.

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