ReviewBehavioral ecology and sociobiology2018
The role of complex cues in social and reproductive plasticity.
Review in Behavioral ecology and sociobiology, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 17 papers, 1 of them a synthesis 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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
17 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Ageing effects of social environments in 'non-social' insects.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2024Pooled it
- Malaria parasites can optimize transmission investment by sensing two within-host cues.PLoS biology · 2025Article
- Variable Breeding Strategies in a Fluctuating Environment: A Feeding Experiment in Eastern Chipmunks.Ecology and evolution · 2025Article
- What matters to a mouse? Effects of internal and external context on male vocal response to female squeaks.PloS one · 2025Article
- Fake news? The impact of information mismatch on mating behaviour.Ecology and evolution · 2024Article
- Evolutionary rescue from climate change: male indirect genetic effects on lay-dates and their consequences for population persistence.Evolution letters · 2024Article
- One genome, multiple phenotypes: decoding the evolution and mechanisms of environmentally induced developmental plasticity in insects.Biochemical Society transactions · 2023Review
- Memory of social experience affects female fecundity via perception of fly deposits.BMC biology · 2022Article
- Characterization, costs, cues and future perspectives of phenotypic plasticity.Annals of botany · 2022Review
- The evolution of sex peptide: sexual conflict, cooperation, and coevolution.Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society · 2022Article
- Cognition and Its Shaping Effect on Sexual Conflict: Integrating Biology and Psychology.Frontiers in integrative neuroscience · 2022Review
- Juvenile Experience with Male Cues Triggers Cryptic Choice Mechanisms in Adult Female Redback Spiders.Insects · 2021Article
- Complex signals alter recognition accuracy and conspecific acceptance thresholds.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2020Article
- Black widows as plastic wallflowers: female choosiness increases with indicators of high mate availability in a natural population.Scientific reports · 2020Article
- Fitness consequences of redundant cues of competition in maleEcology and evolution · 2020Article
- Phenotypic plasticity in response to climate change: the importance of cue variation.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2019Article
- Sensory perception of rivals has trait-dependent effects on plasticity inBehavioral ecology : official journal of the International Society for Behavioral EcologyArticle
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Phenotypic plasticity can be a key determinant of fitness. The degree to which the expression of plasticity is adaptive relies upon the accuracy with which information about the state of the environment is integrated. This step might be particularly beneficial when environments, e.g. the social and sexual context, change rapidly. Fluctuating temporal dynamics could increase the difficulty of determining the appropriate level of expression of a plastic response. In this review, we suggest that new insights into plastic responses to the social and sexual environment (social and reproductive plasticity) may be gained by examining the role of complex cues (those comprising multiple, distinct sensory components). Such cues can enable individuals to more accurately monitor their environment in order to respond adaptively to it across the whole life course. We briefly review the hypotheses for the evolution of complex cues and then adapt these ideas to the context of social and sexual plasticity. We propose that the ability to perceive complex cues can facilitate plasticity, increase the associated fitness benefits and decrease the risk of costly 'mismatches' between phenotype and environment by (i) increasing the robustness of information gained from highly variable environments, (ii) fine-tuning responses by using multiple strands of information and (iii) reducing time lags in adaptive responses. We conclude by outlining areas for future research that will help to determine the interplay between complex cues and plasticity.
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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.