What makes a multimodal signal attractive? A preference function approach

Ronald, Kelly L.; Zeng, Ruiyu; White, David J.; Fernández‐Juricic, Esteban; Lucas, Jeffrey R.

doi:10.1093/beheco/arx015

Cited by 30 publications

(29 citation statements)

References 48 publications

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“…This may especially be the case where the information from different modalities eventually interacts to influence preference, like in brown-headed cowbirds (Ronald et al 2017). For example, if females are sensory generalists, we may expect females to prefer males that can signal their quality equally across modalities.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Subjects were first used in a mate-choice experiment described elsewhere (Ronald et al 2017), which involved implanting them with estradiol (10 mm crystalline estrogen, Sigma Chemical Co., St. Louis, MO, into Silastic tubing, outer diameter 1.96 mm) after sedation with ketamine (40–60 mg/kg) and midazolam (6–8 mg/kg) via intramuscular injection. Females were randomly divided into seven experimental blocks with blocks of birds run sequentially.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Nevertheless, we know relatively little about how receivers filter signal content across sensory modalities (Ronald et al 2012). This gap is particularly important, because signal content across sensory modalities may combine or interact to influence perception, and ultimately mate-choice and reproductive success (Taylor et al 2011; Taylor and Ryan 2013; Reichert and Hobel 2015; Ronald et al 2017). …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Behavioral studies have shown that females prefer the multimodal display over the isolated song (O’Loghlen and Rothstein 2010) or the isolated visual signal (O’Loghlen and Rothstein 2012). In addition, the intensity of the visual signal (e.g., width of the wingspread and depth of the bow) and spectral/temporal components of the song can interact with one another to influence female preferences (see Ronald et al 2017). This interaction suggests that the signal components provide different “messages” to the female about male quality (i.e., the multiple messages hypothesis of non-redundant signals) (Candolin 2003).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The sensory substrate of multimodal communication in brown-headed cowbirds: are females sensory ‘specialists’ or ‘generalists’?

et al. 2017

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Many animals communicate with multimodal signals. While we have an understanding of multimodal signal production, we know relatively less about receiver filtering of multimodal signals and whether filtering capacity in one modality influences filtering in a second modality. Most multimodal signals contain a temporal element, such as change in frequency over time or a dynamic visual display. We examined the relationship in temporal resolution across two modalities to test whether females are (1) sensory 'specialists', where a trade-off exists between the sensory modalities, (2) sensory 'generalists', where a positive relationship exists between the modalities, or (3) whether no relationship exists between modalities. We used female brown-headed cowbirds (Molothrus ater) to investigate this question as males court females with an audiovisual display. We found a significant positive relationship between female visual and auditory temporal resolution, suggesting that females are sensory 'generalists'. Females appear to resolve information well across multiple modalities, which may select for males that signal their quality similarly across modalities.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The sensory substrate of multimodal communication in brown-headed cowbirds: are females sensory ‘specialists’ or ‘generalists’?

et al. 2017

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“…The multimodal integration of signals by females is therefore not additive but rather involves a complex emergence. Finally, in the brown-headed cowbird (Molothrus ater), the intensity of the visual component of male courtship modulates the attractiveness of male songs (Ronald et al, 2017). They found that female integration of the multicomponent male signal was not additive and that the preference varied with display complexity, that is with the number of components of the signal.…”

Section: Multimodal Courtship Displays Are More Than the Sum Of Thementioning

confidence: 99%

Evolution and function of multimodal courtship displays

2019

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Courtship displays are behaviours aimed to facilitate attraction and mating with the opposite sex and are very common across the animal kingdom. Most courtship displays are multimodal, meaning that they are composed of concomitant signals occurring in different sensory modalities. Although courtship often strongly influences reproductive success, the question of why and how males use multimodal courtship to increase their fitness has not yet received much attention. Very little is known about the role of different components of male courtship and their relative importance for females. Indeed, most of the work on courtship displays have focused on effects on female choice, often neglecting other possible roles. Additionally, a number of scientists have recently stressed the importance of considering the complexity of a display and the interactions between its different components in order to grasp all the information contained in those multimodal signals. Unfortunately, these methods have not yet been extensively adapted in courtship studies. The aim of this study was to review what is currently known about the functional significance of courtship displays, particularly about the role of multimodality in the courtship communication context. Emphasis is placed on those cases where a complete picture of the communication system can only be assessed by taking complexity and interaction between different modalities into account.

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Parameterizing animal sounds and motion with animal-attached tags to study acoustic communication

Casoli

Johnson

McHugh

et al. 2022

Behav Ecol Sociobiol

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Stemming from the traditional use of field observers to score states and events, the study of animal behaviour often relies on analyses of discrete behavioural categories. Many studies of acoustic communication record sequences of animal sounds, classify vocalizations, and then examine how call categories are used relative to behavioural states and events. However, acoustic parameters can also convey information independent of call type, offering complementary study approaches to call classifications. Animal-attached tags can continuously sample high-resolution behavioural data on sounds and movements, which enables testing how acoustic parameters of signals relate to parameters of animal motion. Here, we present this approach through case studies on wild common bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus). Using data from sound-and-movement recording tags deployed in Sarasota (FL), we parameterized dolphin vocalizations and motion to investigate how senders and receivers modified movement parameters (including vectorial dynamic body acceleration, “VeDBA”, a proxy for activity intensity) as a function of signal parameters. We show that (1) VeDBA of one female during consortships had a negative relationship with centroid frequency of male calls, matching predictions about agonistic interactions based on motivation-structural rules; (2) VeDBA of four males had a positive relationship with modulation rate of their pulsed vocalizations, confirming predictions that click-repetition rate of these calls increases with agonism intensity. Tags offer opportunities to study animal behaviour through analyses of continuously sampled quantitative parameters, which can complement traditional methods and facilitate research replication. Our case studies illustrate the value of this approach to investigate communicative roles of acoustic parameter changes. Significance statement Studies of animal behaviour have traditionally relied on classification of behavioural patterns and analyses of discrete behavioural categories. Today, technologies such as animal-attached tags enable novel approaches, facilitating the use of quantitative metrics to characterize behaviour. In the field of acoustic communication, researchers typically classify vocalizations and examine usage of call categories. Through case studies of bottlenose dolphin social interactions, we present here a novel tag-based complementary approach. We used high-resolution tag data to parameterize dolphin sounds and motion, and we applied continuously sampled parameters to examine how individual dolphins responded to conspecifics’ signals and moved while producing sounds. Activity intensity of senders and receivers changed with specific call parameters, matching our predictions and illustrating the value of our approach to test communicative roles of acoustic parameter changes. Parametric approaches can complement traditional methods for animal behaviour and facilitate research replication.

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What makes a multimodal signal attractive? A preference function approach

Cited by 30 publications

References 48 publications

The sensory substrate of multimodal communication in brown-headed cowbirds: are females sensory ‘specialists’ or ‘generalists’?

The sensory substrate of multimodal communication in brown-headed cowbirds: are females sensory ‘specialists’ or ‘generalists’?

Evolution and function of multimodal courtship displays

Parameterizing animal sounds and motion with animal-attached tags to study acoustic communication

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