Behavioral plasticity

Behavioral plasticity refers to a change in an organism's behavior that results from exposure to stimuli, such as changing environmental conditions. Behavior is one of the most variable traits and can be influenced by many factors.

The concept of behavioral plasticity began to gain prominence in the 1970s, under the guise of behavioral flexibility. Flexibility in this sense referred to an organism's ability to alter their behavior in response to the environment. Although behavioral plasticity has become a more widely used hypothesis over the last decade, demonstrating true plasticity without assuming genetic variance remains controversial and difficult in many studies.

Behavioral plasticity can be broadly organized into two types: exogenous and endogenous. Exogenous plasticity refers to the changes in behavioral phenotype caused by an external stimuli, experience, or environment. Endogenous plasticity encompasses plastic responses that result from changes in internal cues, such as circadian rhythm or menstruation.

These two broad categories can be further broken down into two other important classifications. When an external stimuli elicits or "activates" an immediate response (an immediate effect on behavior), then the organism is demonstrating contexual plasticity. This form of plasticity highlights the concept that external stimuli in a given context activate neural and hormonal mechanisms or pathways which already exist inside the organism. In contrast, if an organism's current behavior is altered by past experiences, then the animal is said to be exhibiting developmental or "innate" behavioral plasticity. This form of plasticity is generally thought to require new neuronal pathways to form.

Developmental behavioral plasticity corresponds to the commonly used of definition of plasticity: a single genotype can expresses more than one behavioral phenotype as a result of different developmental routes triggered by differences in environments. Developmental plasticity thus envelops what is referred to as "learning". However, developmental plasticity also includes developmental changes in morphology and physiology relevant to a particular behavior, such as changes in muscles, limbs, or bones that influence foraging or locomotion throughout and organism's life.

A major difference between developmental and contextual plasticity is the inherent trade-off between the time of interpreting a stimuli and exhibiting a behavior. Contextual plasticity is a near immediate response to the environment. The underlying hormonal networks/neuronal pathways are already present, so it is only a matter of activating them. In contrast, developmental plasticity requires actual changes to occur during developmental stages on the hormonal networks and neuronal pathways. Developmental plasticity is a slower process than contextual plasticity, but has the potential to result in a much wider range of behavioral phenotypes. The environmental cues received early in development can influence the rest of the subsequent development of multiple traits.

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