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Do Male and Female Cowbirds See Their World Differently? Implications for Sex Differences in the Sensory System of an Avian Brood Parasite

BACKGROUND: Male and female avian brood parasites are subject to different selection pressures: males compete for mates but do not provide parental care or territories and only females locate hosts to lay eggs. This sex difference may affect brain architecture in some avian brood parasites, but rela...

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Autores principales: Fernández-Juricic, Esteban, Ojeda, Agustin, Deisher, Marcella, Burry, Brianna, Baumhardt, Patrice, Stark, Amy, Elmore, Amanda G., Ensminger, Amanda L.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2013
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3609808/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23544049
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0058985
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author Fernández-Juricic, Esteban
Ojeda, Agustin
Deisher, Marcella
Burry, Brianna
Baumhardt, Patrice
Stark, Amy
Elmore, Amanda G.
Ensminger, Amanda L.
author_facet Fernández-Juricic, Esteban
Ojeda, Agustin
Deisher, Marcella
Burry, Brianna
Baumhardt, Patrice
Stark, Amy
Elmore, Amanda G.
Ensminger, Amanda L.
author_sort Fernández-Juricic, Esteban
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Male and female avian brood parasites are subject to different selection pressures: males compete for mates but do not provide parental care or territories and only females locate hosts to lay eggs. This sex difference may affect brain architecture in some avian brood parasites, but relatively little is known about their sensory systems and behaviors used to obtain sensory information. Our goal was to study the visual resolution and visual information gathering behavior (i.e., scanning) of brown-headed cowbirds. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We measured the density of single cone photoreceptors, associated with chromatic vision, and double cone photoreceptors, associated with motion detection and achromatic vision. We also measured head movement rates, as indicators of visual information gathering behavior, when exposed to an object. We found that females had significantly lower density of single and double cones than males around the fovea and in the periphery of the retina. Additionally, females had significantly higher head-movement rates than males. CONCLUSIONS: Overall, we suggest that female cowbirds have lower chromatic and achromatic visual resolution than males (without sex differences in visual contrast perception). Females might compensate for the lower visual resolution by gazing alternatively with both foveae in quicker succession than males, increasing their head movement rates. However, other physiological factors may have influenced the behavioral differences observed. Our results bring up relevant questions about the sensory basis of sex differences in behavior. One possibility is that female and male cowbirds differentially allocate costly sensory resources, as a recent study found that females actually have greater auditory resolution than males.
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spelling pubmed-36098082013-03-29 Do Male and Female Cowbirds See Their World Differently? Implications for Sex Differences in the Sensory System of an Avian Brood Parasite Fernández-Juricic, Esteban Ojeda, Agustin Deisher, Marcella Burry, Brianna Baumhardt, Patrice Stark, Amy Elmore, Amanda G. Ensminger, Amanda L. PLoS One Research Article BACKGROUND: Male and female avian brood parasites are subject to different selection pressures: males compete for mates but do not provide parental care or territories and only females locate hosts to lay eggs. This sex difference may affect brain architecture in some avian brood parasites, but relatively little is known about their sensory systems and behaviors used to obtain sensory information. Our goal was to study the visual resolution and visual information gathering behavior (i.e., scanning) of brown-headed cowbirds. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We measured the density of single cone photoreceptors, associated with chromatic vision, and double cone photoreceptors, associated with motion detection and achromatic vision. We also measured head movement rates, as indicators of visual information gathering behavior, when exposed to an object. We found that females had significantly lower density of single and double cones than males around the fovea and in the periphery of the retina. Additionally, females had significantly higher head-movement rates than males. CONCLUSIONS: Overall, we suggest that female cowbirds have lower chromatic and achromatic visual resolution than males (without sex differences in visual contrast perception). Females might compensate for the lower visual resolution by gazing alternatively with both foveae in quicker succession than males, increasing their head movement rates. However, other physiological factors may have influenced the behavioral differences observed. Our results bring up relevant questions about the sensory basis of sex differences in behavior. One possibility is that female and male cowbirds differentially allocate costly sensory resources, as a recent study found that females actually have greater auditory resolution than males. Public Library of Science 2013-03-27 /pmc/articles/PMC3609808/ /pubmed/23544049 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0058985 Text en © 2013 Fernández-Juricic et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Fernández-Juricic, Esteban
Ojeda, Agustin
Deisher, Marcella
Burry, Brianna
Baumhardt, Patrice
Stark, Amy
Elmore, Amanda G.
Ensminger, Amanda L.
Do Male and Female Cowbirds See Their World Differently? Implications for Sex Differences in the Sensory System of an Avian Brood Parasite
title Do Male and Female Cowbirds See Their World Differently? Implications for Sex Differences in the Sensory System of an Avian Brood Parasite
title_full Do Male and Female Cowbirds See Their World Differently? Implications for Sex Differences in the Sensory System of an Avian Brood Parasite
title_fullStr Do Male and Female Cowbirds See Their World Differently? Implications for Sex Differences in the Sensory System of an Avian Brood Parasite
title_full_unstemmed Do Male and Female Cowbirds See Their World Differently? Implications for Sex Differences in the Sensory System of an Avian Brood Parasite
title_short Do Male and Female Cowbirds See Their World Differently? Implications for Sex Differences in the Sensory System of an Avian Brood Parasite
title_sort do male and female cowbirds see their world differently? implications for sex differences in the sensory system of an avian brood parasite
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3609808/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23544049
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0058985
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