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Adaptive explanations for sensitive windows in development

Overview of attention for article published in Frontiers in Zoology, August 2015
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About this Attention Score

  • In the top 25% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
  • Good Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (75th percentile)
  • Good Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source (67th percentile)

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10 X users
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1 Facebook page

Citations

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173 Dimensions

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199 Mendeley
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1 CiteULike
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Title
Adaptive explanations for sensitive windows in development
Published in
Frontiers in Zoology, August 2015
DOI 10.1186/1742-9994-12-s1-s3
Pubmed ID
Authors

Tim W Fawcett, Willem E Frankenhuis

Abstract

Development in many organisms appears to show evidence of sensitive windows-periods or stages in ontogeny in which individual experience has a particularly strong influence on the phenotype (compared to other periods or stages). Despite great interest in sensitive windows from both fundamental and applied perspectives, the functional (adaptive) reasons why they have evolved are unclear. Here we outline a conceptual framework for understanding when natural selection should favour changes in plasticity across development. Our approach builds on previous theory on the evolution of phenotypic plasticity, which relates individual and population differences in plasticity to two factors: the degree of uncertainty about the environmental conditions and the extent to which experiences during development ('cues') provide information about those conditions. We argue that systematic variation in these two factors often occurs within the lifetime of a single individual, which will select for developmental changes in plasticity. Of central importance is how informational properties of the environment interact with the life history of the organism. Phenotypes may be more or less sensitive to environmental cues at different points in development because of systematic changes in (i) the frequency of cues, (ii) the informativeness of cues, (iii) the fitness benefits of information and/or (iv) the constraints on plasticity. In relatively stable environments, a sensible null expectation is that plasticity will gradually decline with age as the developing individual gathers information. We review recent models on the evolution of developmental changes in plasticity and explain how they fit into our conceptual framework. Our aim is to encourage an adaptive perspective on sensitive windows in development.

X Demographics

X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 10 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 199 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
United Kingdom 3 2%
United States 1 <1%
Portugal 1 <1%
Switzerland 1 <1%
Unknown 193 97%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Ph. D. Student 48 24%
Researcher 37 19%
Student > Bachelor 29 15%
Student > Master 16 8%
Student > Doctoral Student 6 3%
Other 24 12%
Unknown 39 20%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Agricultural and Biological Sciences 78 39%
Psychology 29 15%
Environmental Science 10 5%
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology 8 4%
Social Sciences 5 3%
Other 14 7%
Unknown 55 28%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 6. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 19 May 2017.
All research outputs
#6,212,034
of 25,373,627 outputs
Outputs from Frontiers in Zoology
#283
of 695 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#66,910
of 278,031 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Frontiers in Zoology
#9
of 28 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 25,373,627 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done well and is in the 75th percentile: it's in the top 25% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 695 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 20.9. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 59% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 278,031 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done well, scoring higher than 75% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 28 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 67% of its contemporaries.