THE STUDY OF ANIMAL COMMUNICATION HAS TRADITIONALLY FORMED AN important part of the study of animal behaviour. In recent years it has tended to become a sub-field in its own right, attracting workers of varied interests; it is also receiving increasing attention at the undergraduate level. Another recent development is an area which has come to be known as neuroethology. The problem for the neuroethologist is that much of behaviour is not reliable or "reflex-like" in its expression. Communicative behaviour, on the other hand, often is, and here neurophysiology can make a significant contribution to our understanding of the underlying mechanisms. Some excellent texts on animal communication are available, as are collected essays on the neural substrates of specific behaviour patterns, but none of these provides a broad synthesis of concepts in neuro­ physiology and behaviour. The aim of this book is to draw attention to those areas where neurophysiology is relevant to the behaviourist. The book is not an introduction to animal behaviour or neurophysiology; some prior knowledge of these fields is assumed. It is the integration of these fields that we have attempted.

Inhalt

1. Hat is Communication?.- Problems Of Definition.- The interval between emission and response.- Variability in communication behaviour.- Contextual information.- The Functions Of Communication.- Interspecific interactions.- Intraspecific interactions.- Exploitation Of Existing Communication Systems.- 2. Sensory Systems.- The Nature of the Stimulus and the Receptor.- The complement of receptors.- Perception and reception.- Perceptual capability, behavioural approach.- Receptor capability, physiological approach.- Principles And Constraints In Sense Organ Design.- The Coding of Basic Stimulus Parameters.- The Coding Of Complex Stimulus Parameters.- Form and pattern.- Directional sensitivity.- Frequency discrimination and analysis.- Conclusions.- Acoustic communication in insects and birds.- Visual communication in the firefly and the stickleback.- Comparison of visual and other modalities.- 3. External Stimuli, Internal Factors and Behaviour.- Sign Stimuli and the Innate Releasing Mechanism.- Intervening Variables in Behaviour.- Selective attention.- Centrifugal control.- Feedback control.- The "reafference" principle.- Motivational Gating.- Conclusions.- 4. Integration and the Control of Behaviour.- Mechanisms of Filtration and Integration.- Synaptic processes.- Axonal processes.- Non-spiking interneurones.- Examples Of Central Sensory Integration.- The olfactory system.- The auditory system.- The visual system.- Multimodal integration.- The Motor System And Behaviour.- The fixed action pattern-a valid concept?.- Reflex control.- Control by central pattern generators.- Command neurones.- Conclusions.- 5. Signals and Their Evolution.- Chemical Signals and Their Evolution.- Acoustic Signals.- Characteristics of the acoustic channel.- Mechanisms of sound production.- Evolution of song patterns in Orthoptera.- Further considerations.- Visual Signals and Their Evolution.- Origins and Evolution of Vertebrate Signals.- Behaviour resulting from "conflict" of underlying tendencies.- Ritualization.- Numbers of Displays.- Conclusions.- 6. The Shaping of Communication Sequences, Courtship.- Butterfly Courtship.- Fish Courtship.- Courtship in the Newt, the Problem of the Spermatophore.- Courtship in Birds.- Conclusions.- 7. Some Methods of Analysing Sequences of Behaviour.- Intra-Individual Transition Matrices.- Inter-Individual Matrices.- Information Analysis.- Multivariate Analysis.