摘要
I outline how understanding the mechanism of behavioural plasticity is important for predicting how organisms will respond to rapidly changing and novel environments. I define two major forms of behavioural plasticity: developmental and activational. Developmental plasticity refers to the capacity of a genotype to adopt different developmental trajectories in different environments. Activational plasticity refers to differential activation of an underlying network in different environments such that an individual expresses various phenotypes throughout their lifetime. I suggest that the costs and benefits of these two forms of behavioural plasticity may differ: developmental plasticity is slow, but results in a wider range of more integrated responses. Furthermore, the neural costs associated with activational plasticity may be greater because large neural networks must be maintained past an initial sampling and learning phase. While the benefits of plasticity are realized in variable environments, I argue that fine-grained and coarse-grained variation may differentially select for activational and developmental plasticity, respectively. Because environmental variation experienced by an organism is largely determined by behaviour, developmental plasticity may still evolve in fine-grained environments if niche choice results in coarse-grained ‘realized’ variation. Behavioural plasticity should impact evolution in novel environments because it increases the chances of survival in these environments. Developmental behavioural plasticity may be particularly important for diversification in novel environments because it can impact not only survival, but also the development of signals and preferences important in mate choice. Future areas of research on behavioural plasticity and rapid environmental change include stress as a mechanism underlying rapid integrated responses and life history perspectives on predicting developmental versus evolutionary responses.
摘要译文
我概括了如何理解行为可塑性的机制是如何预测将生物体应对迅速变化和新的环境中非常重要。我定义行为可塑性的两种主要形式：发展和activational。发育可塑性是指基因型以采用在不同的环境中的不同发展轨迹的能力。Activational可塑性是指差分激活潜在的网络环境不同，使得个人表达的整个生命周期的各种表型。我认为，这两种形式的行为的可塑性的成本和收益可能会有所不同：发育可塑性是缓慢的，但会导致更广泛的综合应对。此外，与activational可塑性相关的神经成本可能更大，因为大的神经网络，必须保持过去的初始采样和学习阶段。虽然可塑性的好处实现变量的环境中，我认为，细粒度和粗粒度的变化可能差异选择activational和发育可塑性，分别。因为所经历的生物体环境的变化主要是由行为确定发育可塑性可以细粒度的环境仍然演变，如果利基选择的结果粗粒''''实现''''的变化。行为可塑性应该影响进化小说中的环境，因为它增加了生存在这些环境中的机会。因为它可以影响不仅生存发展行为可塑性可能是多样化的新环境中尤为重要，而且信号和喜好在择偶的重要发展。人的可塑性和快速的环境变化包括应力底层迅速采取综合应对和生活史的角度上预测发展与演化的反应机制。
Emilie C. Snell-Rood. An overview of the evolutionary causes and consequences of behavioural plasticity[J]. Animal Behaviour, 2013,85(5): 1004–1011