research |
Research interests
I am an integrative biologist primarily interested in understanding the mechanisms and evolution of behavioral variation. Social behavior poses an interesting challenge to our understanding of the mechanistic basis of behavior because it involves interactions between individuals with differing phenotypes, experiences, and interests. The capacity to assess and respond to social situations is vital to fitness, yet the mechanisms underlying how animals respond to social challenges are not well understood, and we know virtually nothing about how these mechanisms evolve in the brain. The goal of my research is to generate a predictive framework for understanding how interactions between genes, neural circuits, whole organism phenotypes, and the environment give rise to the incredibly diverse behavioral diversity we see in nature.
Specialized projects
Plasticity and personality of parental care
Plasticity, the capacity of individuals to respond to environmental changes, is critically important due to its role in biological innovation and diversity. Behaviors can be tremendously plastic, yet individuals also exhibit 'personalities', consistent individual differences in behavior maintained across time and / or contexts. It is not intuitively obvious why such variation exists and what the consequences of this variation are for individuals and populations. Parental care provides an important context for studying individual variation, as parents play a vital role in shaping the development of their offspring. Thus, variation within and among individuals in parenting strategies can influence whether and how much care offspring receive, which ultimately has consequences for future generations. I use laboratory and field manipulations of clown anemonefish (Amphiprion percula) to study variation within and among individuals in parenting strategies, and results have highlighted the key role parents play in ecological processes.
Relevant publications
Barbasch, T.A., Rueger, T., Srinivasan, M., Jones, G.P., Wong, M.Y.L., and Buston, P.M. 2020. Substantial plasticity of reproduction and parental care in response to local resource availability in a wild clownish population. Oikos, 129: 1844-1855.
Barbasch, T.A. and Buston, P.M. 2018. Plasticity and personality of parental care in the clown anemonefish. Animal Behaviour, 136: 65-73.
Plasticity, the capacity of individuals to respond to environmental changes, is critically important due to its role in biological innovation and diversity. Behaviors can be tremendously plastic, yet individuals also exhibit 'personalities', consistent individual differences in behavior maintained across time and / or contexts. It is not intuitively obvious why such variation exists and what the consequences of this variation are for individuals and populations. Parental care provides an important context for studying individual variation, as parents play a vital role in shaping the development of their offspring. Thus, variation within and among individuals in parenting strategies can influence whether and how much care offspring receive, which ultimately has consequences for future generations. I use laboratory and field manipulations of clown anemonefish (Amphiprion percula) to study variation within and among individuals in parenting strategies, and results have highlighted the key role parents play in ecological processes.
Relevant publications
Barbasch, T.A., Rueger, T., Srinivasan, M., Jones, G.P., Wong, M.Y.L., and Buston, P.M. 2020. Substantial plasticity of reproduction and parental care in response to local resource availability in a wild clownish population. Oikos, 129: 1844-1855.
Barbasch, T.A. and Buston, P.M. 2018. Plasticity and personality of parental care in the clown anemonefish. Animal Behaviour, 136: 65-73.
Parental negotiations over offspring care
The existence of biparental care poses a perplexing evolutionary question because parents must coordinate their behavior to raise offspring when there are costs to providing care and inherent conflicts of interest between parents. In species with biparental care, conflict arises because each parent benefits from shifting the burden of care to the other and reaping the benefits of their partner's efforts. Studying how parents resolve this conflict and coordinate their efforts to successfully raise offspring is critical to our ability to explain and predict empirical patterns of care within and across species. Theory predicts that parents should respond one another to reach a negotiated settlement over how much care to provide to their offspring, but empirical tests of these predictions have revealed novel questions. To explore the factors that influence parental negotiations, I combine theoretical modeling with field manipulations in A. percula to test alternative hypotheses for how negotiations operate in natural populations. I developed and tested a theoretical model of how power influences negotiations between parents over care that demonstrated how cooperative outcomes can arise despite conflict between parents.
Relevant publications
Barbasch, T.A., Alonzo, S.H., and Buston, P.M. 2020. Power and punishment influence negotiations over parental care. Behavioral Ecology, 31: 911-921.
Barbasch, T.A., Branconi, R., Francis, R., Pacaro, M., Srinivasan, M., Jones, G.P., and Buston, P.M. 2021. Negotiations over parental care: a test of alternative hypotheses in the clown anemonefish. Behavioral Ecology. In press.
The existence of biparental care poses a perplexing evolutionary question because parents must coordinate their behavior to raise offspring when there are costs to providing care and inherent conflicts of interest between parents. In species with biparental care, conflict arises because each parent benefits from shifting the burden of care to the other and reaping the benefits of their partner's efforts. Studying how parents resolve this conflict and coordinate their efforts to successfully raise offspring is critical to our ability to explain and predict empirical patterns of care within and across species. Theory predicts that parents should respond one another to reach a negotiated settlement over how much care to provide to their offspring, but empirical tests of these predictions have revealed novel questions. To explore the factors that influence parental negotiations, I combine theoretical modeling with field manipulations in A. percula to test alternative hypotheses for how negotiations operate in natural populations. I developed and tested a theoretical model of how power influences negotiations between parents over care that demonstrated how cooperative outcomes can arise despite conflict between parents.
Relevant publications
Barbasch, T.A., Alonzo, S.H., and Buston, P.M. 2020. Power and punishment influence negotiations over parental care. Behavioral Ecology, 31: 911-921.
Barbasch, T.A., Branconi, R., Francis, R., Pacaro, M., Srinivasan, M., Jones, G.P., and Buston, P.M. 2021. Negotiations over parental care: a test of alternative hypotheses in the clown anemonefish. Behavioral Ecology. In press.
Mechanisms of decision-making
Animals are constantly faced with multiple, conflicting demands on their time and energy. How animals make decisions and prioritize in the face of such conflict is critical to fitness, yet the optimal decision at any given moment is complex and may not have a single correct answer. Using the threespined stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus), an emerging model system for behavioral genomics, I am exploring the neural and molecular mechanisms underlying how animals manage multiple conflicting demands at the same time. I have identified distinct sets of genes that are recruited in the brain when male sticklebacks are faced with competing demands, which may reflect the unique challenges associated with balancing two things at once. I am currently localizing these genes to key areas of the social decision-making network of the brain using pS6 as a marker for neural activity. This project is part of an NSF postdoctoral research fellowship in Biology in collaboration with Dr. Alison Bell and Dr. Eva Fischer at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
Relevant publications
Barbasch, T.A., Behrens, C., McLain, M., Arredondo, E., Bell, A.M. In revision. A distinct neurogenomic response to a tradeoff between social challenge and opportunity in threespined sticklebacks (Gasterosteus aculeatus). Biology Letters.
Animals are constantly faced with multiple, conflicting demands on their time and energy. How animals make decisions and prioritize in the face of such conflict is critical to fitness, yet the optimal decision at any given moment is complex and may not have a single correct answer. Using the threespined stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus), an emerging model system for behavioral genomics, I am exploring the neural and molecular mechanisms underlying how animals manage multiple conflicting demands at the same time. I have identified distinct sets of genes that are recruited in the brain when male sticklebacks are faced with competing demands, which may reflect the unique challenges associated with balancing two things at once. I am currently localizing these genes to key areas of the social decision-making network of the brain using pS6 as a marker for neural activity. This project is part of an NSF postdoctoral research fellowship in Biology in collaboration with Dr. Alison Bell and Dr. Eva Fischer at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
Relevant publications
Barbasch, T.A., Behrens, C., McLain, M., Arredondo, E., Bell, A.M. In revision. A distinct neurogenomic response to a tradeoff between social challenge and opportunity in threespined sticklebacks (Gasterosteus aculeatus). Biology Letters.