Tinbergen's fourth question, ontogeny: sexual and individual differentiation

Animal Biology
D Crews, Ton G G Groothuis

Abstract

Based on Tinbergen's view of the study of behavioural development we describe some recent advances and their importance in this field. We argue that the study of behavioural development should combine both proximate and ultimate approaches, and can help to understand how early subtle environmental factors shape consistent individual variation both between and within sexes. This is illustrated by reviewing the profound effects of incubation temperature on the development of brain and social behaviour in the leopard gecko, a species with temperature-dependent sex determination, and the effects of early exposure to steroid hormones on social behaviour in rodents and especially birds. Both are maternal effects: incubation temperature can be partly determined by the nest site where the mother deposited her eggs, while in both oviparous and viviparous vertebrates maternal hormones reach and influence the embryo. In the gecko, incubation temperature affects sexual and aggressive behaviour, growth, the hypothalamus-pituitary-gonadal axis, as well as the size, connectivity and metabolic capacity of certain brain areas. In this way not only is the gonad type determined, but so too is the morphological, physiological, neural, and behaviou...Continue Reading

Citations

Dec 29, 2005·Developmental Psychobiology·Oliver Putz, David Crews
Aug 26, 2011·Developmental Psychobiology·Ton G G Groothuis, Fritz Trillmich
Jun 1, 2007·Perspectives on Psychological Science : a Journal of the Association for Psychological Science·John T CacioppoKevin J Quinn
Aug 2, 2007·Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences·Simon Verhulst, Jan-Ake Nilsson
Feb 6, 2020·Journal of Experimental Zoology. Part B, Molecular and Developmental Evolution·Steven Q Irvine
Nov 6, 2021·Human Nature : an Interdisciplinary Biosocial Perspective·Melvin Konner

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