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Lookup NU author(s): Dr Vivek Nityananda
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
Animals communicating interactively with conspecifics often time their broadcasts to avoid overlapping interference, to emit leading, as opposed to following, signals or to synchronize their signalling rhythms. Each of these adjustments becomes more difficult as the number of interactants increases beyond a pair. Among acoustic species, insects and anurans generally deal with the problem of group signalling by means of 'selective attention' in which they focus on several close or conspicuous neighbours and ignore the rest. In these animals, where signalling and receiving are often dictated by sex, the process of selective attention in signallers may have a parallel counterpart in receivers, which also focus on close neighbours. In birds and mammals, local groups tend to be extended families or clans, and group signalling may entail complex timing mechanisms that allow for attention to all individuals. In general, the mechanisms that allow animals to communicate in groups appear to be fully interwoven with the basic process of rhythmic signalling. This article is part of the theme issue 'Synchrony and rhythm interaction: from the brain to behavioural ecology'.
Author(s): Greenfield MD, Aihara I, Amichay G, Anichini M, Nityananda V
Publication type: Review
Publication status: Published
Journal: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London Series B: Biological Sciences
Year: 2021
Volume: 376
Issue: 1835
Print publication date: 11/10/2021
Online publication date: 23/08/2021
Acceptance date: 15/02/2021
ISSN (print): 0962-8436
ISSN (electronic): 1471-2970
Publisher: Royal Society Publishing
URL: https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2020.0338
DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2020.0338
PubMed id: 34420386
