Photo: Dr. Emily Kane
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Decision-making between alternative mating tactics: Why and How
I am investigating the proximate and ultimate mechanisms that create differences in decisions between alternative mating tactics in acute contexts. To do this, I employ both behavioral and neural studies to disentangle different time scales interacting to produce variation in the decision between courtship and sneak matings in Trinidadian guppies (Poecilia reticulata). |
The Research Projects
Behavioral Circus: Interaction of Ancestry, Development, and Acute cues
Before we can understand the why and how of variation in decision making, we must first investigate the what. What is the influence of the three time scales on the patterns of decisions between alternative mating tactics. Using the Trinidadian guppy (Poecilia reticulata) system I used a common garden to establish high and low predation populations that were then reared in either presence or absence of predation. The adults were then exposed to one of five acute social treatments and we found that all three time scales interact to produce significant variation in courtship strategy. |
Neural Circus: How the neural response to acute cues interacts with ancestry and developmental cues
Using the Trinidadian guppies (Poecilia reticulata) fish from the assays in the behavioral circus I have also been able to demonstrate population level differences in sensitivity to rearing and acute contexts in neural activation, but also the associations between neural activation and specific behaviors vary in sensitivity to rearing and acute contexts depending on ancestry. |
Bag Fish: Learning of the courtship behavior
To understand how social context during development I tested whether the presence of an experienced male during development could influence the number of sigmoids of an inexperienced male when later allowed to interact with a virgin and experienced female. I also observed how this treatment affected the mating strategy across several days. Through a sequential lag analysis I am comparing how a female behavior is associated with a male behaviors. |
Identity of Activated Cells in Mating Contexts
Using the PhosphoTRAP technique (Knight et al., 2012), we are investigating the identity of whole brain neural cells that are activated in a context where there is a mating opportunity. Our goal is to parse out potential candidates for region specific investigation of neural responses in courtship strategy decisions, while investigating the differential expression of transcripts in the mating opportunity context.
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