Back
Full-text
Journal article

Demystifying animal 'personality' (or not): why individual variation matters to experimental biologists.

  • Roche DG Département d'Éco-Éthologie, Institut de Biologie, Université de Neuchâtel, Neuchâtel CH 2000, Switzerland dominique.roche@mail.mcgill.ca.
  • Careau V Canada Research Chair in Functional Ecology, Department of Biology, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1N 6N5.
  • Binning SA Département d'Éco-Éthologie, Institut de Biologie, Université de Neuchâtel, Neuchâtel CH 2000, Switzerland.
  • 2016-11-18
Published in:
  • The Journal of experimental biology. - 2016
Behaviour
Phenotypic variation
Physiology
Reaction norm
Repeatability
Temperament
Animals
Behavior, Animal
Biology
Personality
Phenotype
English Animal 'personality', defined as repeatable inter-individual differences in behaviour, is a concept in biology that faces intense controversy. Critics argue that the field is riddled with terminological and methodological inconsistencies and lacks a sound theoretical framework. Nevertheless, experimental biologists are increasingly studying individual differences in physiology and relating these to differences in behaviour, which can lead to fascinating insights. We encourage this trend, and in this Commentary we highlight some of the benefits of estimating variation in (and covariation among) phenotypic traits at the inter- and intra-individual levels. We focus on behaviour while drawing parallels with physiological and performance-related traits. First, we outline some of the confusion surrounding the terminology used to describe repeatable inter-individual differences in behaviour. Second, we argue that acknowledging individual behavioural differences can help researchers avoid sampling and experimental bias, increase explanatory power and, ultimately, understand how selection acts on physiological traits. Third, we summarize the latest methods to collect, analyse and present data on individual trait variation. We note that, while measuring the repeatability of phenotypic traits is informative in its own right, it is only the first step towards understanding how natural selection and genetic architecture shape intra-specific variation in complex, labile traits. Thus, understanding how and why behavioural traits evolve requires linking repeatable inter-individual behavioural differences with core aspects of physiology (e.g. neurophysiology, endocrinology, energy metabolism) and evolutionary biology (e.g. selection gradients, heritability).
Language
  • English
Open access status
bronze
Identifiers
Persistent URL
https://folia.unifr.ch/global/documents/278130
Statistics
Document views: 6 File downloads:
  • fulltext.pdf: 0