Abstract:
All organisms must respond to environmental and social perturbations. Subsequent facultative hormonal cascades are key for rapid physiological and behavioral acclimation. Although many endocrine cascades are known to respond rapidly to environmental perturbations, it is only recently that we have discovered the plasticity of these responses over the life cycle. Mechanisms underlying modulation of physiological and behavioral responses to environmental change have triggered two major hypotheses. 1. the evolutionary constraints hypothesis which posits that endocrine systems are highly conserved and there are limited ways by which the responses can be modulated. 2. The evolutionary flexibility hypothesis suggesting that there are multiple ways by which endocrine systems can be modulated. This talk will focus on specific facultative hormonal responses and explore why and how these are modulated in relation to the two hypotheses.