TY - JOUR
T1 - Toward an integrative understanding of social behavior
T2 - New models and new opportunities
AU - Blumstein, Daniel T.
AU - Ebensperger, Luis A.
AU - Hayes, Loren D.
AU - Vásquez, Rodrigo A.
AU - Ahern, Todd H.
AU - Burger, Joseph Robert
AU - Dolezal, Adam G.
AU - Dosmann, Andy
AU - González-Mariscal, Gabriela
AU - Harris, Breanna N.
AU - Herrera, Emilio A.
AU - Lacey, Eileen A.
AU - Mateo, Jill
AU - McGraw, Lisa A.
AU - Olazábal, Daniel
AU - Ramenofsky, Marilyn
AU - Rubenstein, Dustin R.
AU - Sakhai, Samuel A.
AU - Saltzman, Wendy
AU - Sainz-Borgo, Cristina
AU - Soto-Gamboa, Mauricio
AU - Stewart, Monica L.
AU - Wey, Tina W.
AU - Wingfield, John C.
AU - Young, Larry J.
PY - 2010/6/28
Y1 - 2010/6/28
N2 - Social interactions among conspecifics are a fundamental and adaptively significant component of the biology of numerous species. Such interactions give rise to group living as well as many of the complex forms of cooperation and conflict that occur within animal groups. Although previous conceptual models have focused on the ecological causes and fitness consequences of variation in social interactions, recent developments in endocrinology, neuroscience, and molecular genetics offer exciting opportunities to develop more integrated research programs that will facilitate new insights into the physiological causes and consequences of social variation. Here, we propose an integrative framework of social behavior that emphasizes relationships between ultimate-level function and proximate-level mechanism, thereby providing a foundation for exploring the full diversity of factors that underlie variation in social interactions, and ultimately sociality. In addition to identifying new model systems for the study of human psychopathologies, this framework provides a mechanistic basis for predicting how social behavior will change in response to environmental variation. We argue that the study of non-model organisms is essential for implementing this integrative model of social behavior because such species can be studied simultaneously in the lab and field, thereby allowing integration of rigorously controlled experimental manipulations with detailed observations of the ecological contexts in which interactions among conspecifics occur.
AB - Social interactions among conspecifics are a fundamental and adaptively significant component of the biology of numerous species. Such interactions give rise to group living as well as many of the complex forms of cooperation and conflict that occur within animal groups. Although previous conceptual models have focused on the ecological causes and fitness consequences of variation in social interactions, recent developments in endocrinology, neuroscience, and molecular genetics offer exciting opportunities to develop more integrated research programs that will facilitate new insights into the physiological causes and consequences of social variation. Here, we propose an integrative framework of social behavior that emphasizes relationships between ultimate-level function and proximate-level mechanism, thereby providing a foundation for exploring the full diversity of factors that underlie variation in social interactions, and ultimately sociality. In addition to identifying new model systems for the study of human psychopathologies, this framework provides a mechanistic basis for predicting how social behavior will change in response to environmental variation. We argue that the study of non-model organisms is essential for implementing this integrative model of social behavior because such species can be studied simultaneously in the lab and field, thereby allowing integration of rigorously controlled experimental manipulations with detailed observations of the ecological contexts in which interactions among conspecifics occur.
KW - Behavioral genetics
KW - Behavioral neuroendocrinology
KW - Integrative models of social behavior
KW - Model systems
KW - Psychopathology
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84862310118&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84862310118&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3389/fnbeh.2010.00034
DO - 10.3389/fnbeh.2010.00034
M3 - Review article
C2 - 20661457
AN - SCOPUS:84862310118
SN - 1662-5153
VL - 4
JO - Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience
JF - Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience
IS - JUN
M1 - 34
ER -