Behavioral context

Bensafi, M., Brown, W. M., Khan, R., Levenson, B. and Sobel, N. (2004) Sniffing human sex-steroid derived compounds modulates mood, memory and autonomic nervous system function in specific behavioral contexts. Behav. Brain Res. 152, 11-22. 

Pugh (1977) has suggested, however, that at extreme intensities, various pleasures or displeasures meld into indistinct happiness or sadness. But before these intensities have been reached, discrete affects have been experienced that provide the subject with specific behavioral guidance. Among many others, Fridlund (1994, p. 279) also makes the point that happiness comes in forms that vary with the behavioral context, a difficulty that is resolved by identifying particular emotional modalities. 

Crustaceans are known to use pheromones in behavioral contexts other than avoidance, including reproduction and social interactions. For example, at least one spiny lobster, the California spiny lobster Panulirus interrupts, has been shown to be attracted to the odor of conspecifics.131 This pheromonal phenomenon is taken advantage of by workers in the lobster fishery, who use live lobsters as bait in their pots.132 However, relatively little research has been performed on the topic of aggregation pheromones, including the nature of the signal and its sensory reception. Pheromonal chemical signals are also involved in the establishment and maintenance of social hierarchies in crustaceans.133 134... 

The chemosensory organs of crustaceans are divided into bimodal chemo- and mechanosensory sensilla (found e.g., on mouthparts and legs) and unimodal olfactory sensilla (usually found on the first antenna). Although the general morphology of these structures has often been thoroughly described, less is known about the function of the sensilla in an ecological and behavioral context. 

Most of what is known about crustacean chemoreception is in the context of food detection and ingestion only very little is known in other behavioral contexts, such as predator avoidance, orientation in the habitat, interactions with symbiotic partners, or intraspecific communication by pheromones. From recent behavioral and neuroanatomical studies, two important concepts about pheromone reception in crustaceans have emerged ... 

The analysis of chemoreception in crustaceans has been focused almost exclusively on food-related chemicals. However, chemoreception is an important sensory channel in many other behavioral contexts such as social interactions and the assessment of danger from predation. Very likely different chemicals are important in these other contexts, but only recently progress was made in the identification of such chemicals and the sensilla detecting them. 

Redundancy. In many behavioral contexts, signals sent simultaneously or consecutively in several sensory modalities achieve the same effect. As early as 1977, Barlow noted that multichannel redundancy is almost the rule . Priming cues in domestic sheep constitute an example of such multisensory signals. Chemicals from the ram, specifically hexadecanediol-1,2 and octa-decanediol-1,2 contained in the suint (wool fat), but also visual and tactile stimuli from the ram stimulate LH secretion and ovulation in ewes (Pearce and Oldham, 1988). 

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