ArticlePhilosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences2017
Physiological mechanisms underlying animal social behaviour.
Article in Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 28 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
28 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 54 citations in OpenAlex.
- The impact of urbanisation on social behaviour: a comprehensive review.Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society · 2026Pooled it
- Physiology can predict animal activity, exploration, and dispersal.Communications biology · 2022Pooled it
- Oxytocin and Oxytocin Receptor Gene Regulation in Williams Syndrome: A Systematic Review.The Yale journal of biology and medicine · 2021Pooled it
- Thyroid hormone determines energy efficiency of locomotion in zebrafish (Danio rerio) in a temperature-sensitive manner.The Journal of experimental biology · 2026Article
- Whole-Brain Connectome Identifies PMvCells · 2026Article
- Elucidating motion patterns in sperm cell motion with dynamic mode decomposition.Journal of biological physics · 2026Article
- Personality, social behavior, and the maintenance of cohesion in a multilevel-society primate (Zoological research · 2026Article
- Social Behavior and Neurogenesis.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Review
- Further integrating social context into comparative and environmental physiology.The Journal of experimental biology · 2026Review
- Backtracking α-synuclein pathology: social deficits precede motor symptoms in Parkinson's disease.NPJ Parkinson's disease · 2025Article
- Physiological responses in free-ranging Asian elephant populations living across human-production landscapes.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Parasites alter interaction patterns in fish social networks.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2025Article
- Exploring rodent prosociality: A conceptual framework.Translational neuroscience · 2025Review
- Expanding theory, methodology and empirical systems at the spatial-social interface.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2024Article
- Neural cell-types and circuits linking thermoregulation and social behavior.Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews · 2024Review
- Age-Related Change in the Association Choices of Two Species of Juvenile Flamingos.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2023Article
- Group-level differences in social network structure remain repeatable after accounting for environmental drivers.Royal Society open science · 2023Article
- The immune-neuroendocrine system, a key aspect of poultry welfare and resilience.Poultry science · 2022Article
- The social transmission of stress in animal collectives.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2022Review
- Untapped potential of physiology, behaviour and immune markers to predict range dynamics and marginality.Ecology and evolution · 2021Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Many species of animal live in groups, and the group represents the organizational level within which ecological and evolutionary processes occur. Understanding these processes, therefore, relies on knowledge of the mechanisms that permit or constrain group formation. We suggest that physiological capacities and differences in physiology between individuals modify fission-fusion dynamics. Differences between individuals in locomotor capacity and metabolism may lead to fission of groups and sorting of individuals into groups with similar physiological phenotypes. Environmental impacts such as hypoxia can influence maximum group sizes and structure in fish schools by altering access to oxygenated water. The nutritional environment determines group cohesion, and the increase in information collected by the group means that individuals should rely more on social information and form more cohesive groups in uncertain environments. Changing environmental contexts require rapid responses by individuals to maintain group coordination, which are mediated by neuroendocrine signalling systems such as nonapeptides and steroid hormones. Brain processing capacity may constrain social complexity by limiting information processing. Failure to evaluate socially relevant information correctly limits social interactions, which is seen, for example, in autism. Hence, functioning of a group relies to a large extent on the perception and appropriate processing of signals from conspecifics. Many if not all physiological systems are mechanistically linked, and therefore have synergistic effects on social behaviour. A challenge for the future lies in understanding these interactive effects, which will improve understanding of group dynamics, particularly in changing environments.This article is part of the themed issue 'Physiological determinants of social behaviour in animals'.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.