Hormonal basis of behaviour
Hormones are important mediators of behavioural decisions. In cooperation with the CEBC-CNRS (France), Ádám Z. Lendvai investigates the physiological side of life-history trade-offs (such as survival - reproduction).
Specifically,
we study what factors influence the individuals physiological response to
stress. The stress response is highly variable among species and among individuals
of a given species, but the causes of this variation remain largely unknown.
In a series of recent experiments we investigated how environmental conditions,
the value of the current reproduction, the parental workload etc. affected
the sparrows' physiological response to stress.