Goals/Questions:
Integration from cellular to social
Use Tyramine as a focal system to explore integration from genes to behavior
Use vitellogenin as a model for the integration from genes to social behavior.
Determine the emergent properties of each level from cellular to social.
Examine how genetic variation contributes to the generation of properties at each level.
Identify the best example(s) of integration across levels in sociality.
Determine whether response thresholds can be tested in social insects other than honey bees
Use sucrose response thresholds as a focus for integrating across levels.
Determine a structure for looking at levels of organization from cellular to social group.
Identify the intrinsic internal components (versus external) at each level of organization
Integration from simple to complex sociality
Use colony size as a unifying parameter in the evolution of social behavior.
Define the term complex system in relation to social groups.
Examine the interaction between colony size and intracolony variation.
Determine what properties change or emerge at the transition from solitary to sociality
Generate a framework diagram for expectations with colony size transitions.
Examine how ecological factors affect the interplay between selection and emergent properties.
Determine the relationship between group size and amplification properties.
Compare the "scripts" of social organization across diverse taxa
Examine the relationships between social complexity and individual intelligence
Compare individual efficiency and associated physiological parameters between less and more specialized systems
Identify what social organization properties are present before versus because of selection
Information flow and social organization
Examine the potential pathways of information flow in a social system, particularly considering behavioral acts as nodes in such a pathway.
Address the question of what happens with information flow as group size increases.
Theoretical approaches and considerations
Consider whether emergent properties are traits.
Consider whether the proximate and ultimate can represent two levels of self organization.
Define and delineate emergent property theory.
Consider how the proximate mechanisms of today define the setting for the ultimate questions of tomorrow.
Identify potential feedback systems within social organization.
Use demography as a common language for measuring parameters across levels.
Identify problematic anthropomorphisms and develop appropriate alternatives.
Find common modeling platforms that will allow us to move across levels from genes to social behavio
Find common commercial modeling programs to use to answer our questions
Use perturbance or "injury" as a methodological approach to determining organizational mechanisms