The origins and maintenance of context-dependent behavior

New Innovator Award Application: The Origins and Maintenance of Context-Dependent Behavior AREA OF SCIENCE: Behavioral and Social Sciences ABSTRACT: Often, an individual's behavior depends on its own condition and the environment in which it expresses that behavior. How and why such context- dependent behavior arises and is expressed remains relatively unknown. One common explanation for context-dependent behavior is that individuals who are in relatively poor condition, or are otherwise suffering from diminished perceptual or behavioral capabilities are simply incapable of expressing normal behavior in some environments. While such constraints undoubtedly occur, this explanation does not satisfactorily account for predictable patterns of behavioral variation that are often observed among different populations or groups of individuals. The possibility that individuals who vary in genotype or phenotype might adopt alternative behavioral strategies in a given environmental context is emerging as the new frontier in behavioral research. Distinguishing between these alternative explanations is critical for understanding the origins of behavioral variation. Indeed, explaining how and why individuals express context-dependent behavior can help us understand and successfully intervene in behavioral disorders. Moreover, because behavior is often linked to the transmission and progression of disease, understanding the origins and maintenance of context-dependent behavior has far reaching implications beyond behavior. I propose to adopt a novel model system that integrates the strengths of field biology with the power of the model system approach. By working with a system for which we understand the ecological context of the behavior as well as the evolutionary history of populations and species, I can examine what factors generate environmental sensitivity and evaluate the genetic and environmental factors that contribute to the maintenance and expression of condition-dependent behavior within and across populations. In particular, I will evaluate: the ecological conditions that promote environmentally sensitive behaviors; the genetic and neural mechanisms that underlie context-dependent behavior; and the environmental and cross-generational origins of variation in condition and its effects on behavior.