ArticleProceedings. Biological sciences2022
Sensitive periods, but not critical periods, evolve in a fluctuating environment: a model of incremental development.
Article in Proceedings. Biological sciences, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers.
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Who cites it
10 citing papers in PubMed.
- Article
- The evolution of reversible plasticity in stable environments.Evolution letters · 2025Article
- Volatility-driven learning in human infants.Science advances · 2025Article
- Unpredictable benefits of social information can lead to the evolution of individual differences in social learning.Nature communications · 2024Article
- Developmental changes in exploration resemble stochastic optimization.Nature human behaviour · 2023Article
- Leveraging big data to uncover the eco-evolutionary factors shaping behavioural development.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2023Review
- Overwintering performance of bamboo leaves, and establishment of mathematical model for the distribution and introduction prediction of bamboos.Frontiers in plant science · 2023Article
- Developmental feedbacks and the emergence of individuality.Royal Society open science · 2022Article
- Applications of conceptual models from lifecourse epidemiology in ecology and evolutionary biology.Biology letters · 2022Review
- Sensitive periods, but not critical periods, evolve in a fluctuating environment: a model of incremental development.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
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Abstract
Sensitive periods, during which the impact of experience on phenotype is larger than in other periods, exist in all classes of organisms, yet little is known about their evolution. Recent mathematical modelling has explored the conditions in which natural selection favours sensitive periods. These models have assumed that the environment is stable across ontogeny or that organisms can develop phenotypes instantaneously at any age. Neither assumption generally holds. Here, we present a model in which organisms gradually tailor their phenotypes to an environment that fluctuates across ontogeny, while receiving cost-free, imperfect cues to the current environmental state. We vary the rate of environmental change, the reliability of cues and the duration of adulthood relative to ontogeny. We use stochastic dynamic programming to compute optimal policies. From these policies, we simulate levels of plasticity across ontogeny and obtain mature phenotypes. Our results show that sensitive periods can occur at the onset, midway through and even towards the end of ontogeny. In contrast with models assuming stable environments, organisms always retain residual plasticity late in ontogeny. We conclude that critical periods, after which plasticity is zero, are unlikely to be favoured in environments that fluctuate across ontogeny.
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