Efficient competition balances the benefits and likelihood of rewards against the costs of contending. Many competitive strategies hinge on a contender's ability to size up its circumstances—and opponents—and decide whether to engage or retreat.
Researchers Paul Stevenson (Leipzig University, Germany) and Jan Rillichat (Free University of Berlin, Germany) explore competitive strategies during aggressive interactions between Mediterranean field crickets. Crickets follow a “cumulative assessment model” wherein contenders add up their opponents' signals and flee when those aggressive signals exceed a certain threshold. Stevenson and Rillichat used this behavioral model to investigate the neuromodulator nitric oxide (NO), which affects aggressive behavior in both mammals and insects. By drugging crickets with chemicals that alter the NO pathway, they showed that critical levels of NO make a cricket flee from aggressive signals and make him less likely to re-engage opponents during a 'cool down' period (Sci. Adv. doi:10.1126/sciadv.1500060; published online 13 March 2015).
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