Sensory abilities

Evolution of a signaling system can also be driven by preexisting sensory biases. The signaler adapts to the receiver s sensory abilities ( sensory drive Endler and MacLellan, 1988). In acoustic communication of frogs, such an evolutionary process has been termed sensory exploitation (Ryan etal., 1990). 

Maynard Smith General athletic and sensory ability is an important component of fitness in a fly, quite independent of courtship. 

Elderly patients often face a number of barriers to compliance related to their age. Such barriers include increased forgetfulness and confusion altered drug disposition and higher sensitivity to some drug effects decreased social and financial support decreased dexterity mobility, or sensory abilities and an increased number of concurrent medicines used (both prescription and over-the-counter), whose attendant toxicities and interactions may cause decreased mental alertness or intolerable side effects. 

Smee DL, Femer MC, Weissburg MJ (2008) Alteration of sensory abilities regulates the spatial scale of nonlethal predator effects. Oecologia 156 399-409... 

I use the term discrimination to refer to the basic sensory ability to distinguish between two odors, in this case the odors of two individuals. These abilities can be directly assessed by a number of methods, but the most common are trained discriminations and habituation-dishabituation methods. 

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