Our research focuses on the evolution of aggressive behaviour. We are interested in a range of questions related to the ultimate evolutionary costs and benefits of alternative aggressive strategies, the proximate physiological and neuroanatomical basis of individual variation in aggressivesness, and the developmental process that underlies these differences.
We investigate the theoretical aspect of the ultimate causes question using techniques such as game theory, genetic algorithms, and artificial neural network simulations. We also do empirical work on a number of animal systems including cichlid fish, chickens, chickadees, mice, rats, squirrels, fruit flies, and humans to investigate the proximate mechanisms underlying variation in aggression and other social behaviours, and the ontological processes that produce this variation.
Some examples of questions that we've examined lately include:
- How can we create more complex game theory models of communication without losing the ability to solve them analyically?
- How do game theoretical solutions to threat display games compare to human behaviour in those games?
- How do fighting ability and perceived value of winning relate to differences in aggressiveness in game theoretical models?
- How does the sex of uterine neighbours influence digit ratio in mice?
- How does prenatal maternal stress influence digit ratio in humans?
- How does pup and mother digit ratio relate to behaviour in ground squirrels?
- What characteristics influence mate choice decisions of female convict cichlids?
- What factors determine fight outcomes in female Drosophila?
Recent talks & conference presentations of lab research
Some Hurd lab collaborators:
- Andrew Iwaniuk, Doug Wong-Wylie & Pete Hurd have been studying the evolution of neuroanatomy in birds, and social status effects on the cerebral morphology and neuroendocrinology of the convict cichlid brain.
- Douglas Wahlsten has been collaborating with us on studies investigating digit ratio variation in inbred mouse strains.
- Silvia Pagliardini and John Greer has been collaborating with us on studies investigating digit ratio variation in mice as a function of the sex of the pups' uterine neighbours.
- Suzanne King has been studying the effects of prenatal maternal stress on psychological development in a population exposed to a natural disaster. We have been collaborating in investigating the effect of mother's stress during pregnancy on the children's digit ratios.
- Ted Garland has been collaborating with us on studies investigating digit ratio variation in mice artificially selected for increased voluntary exercise.
- Art Arnold has been collaborating with us on studies investigating digit ratio variation in mice whose genetic and hormonal sexes do not match each other.
- Jim Hare collaborations examining digit ratio and maternal effects on tendency to bite, and dispersal distance in ground squirrels.
- Bernie Crespi has been collaborating with the lab on studies examining genetic variation in behavioural traits and hand morphology.
