Neuroendocrine Regulation of Animal Vocalization: Mechanisms and Anthropogenic Factors in Animal Communication examines the underpinning neuroendocrine (NE) mechanisms that drive animal communications across taxa. Written by international subject experts, the book focuses on the importance of animal communication in survival and reproduction at an individual and species level, along with the impact the increased production and accumulation of endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) can have on disturbing these normal regulatory processes. Sections cover sound production, perception, processing and response across a range of animals, including fish, bats, birds, non-human primates and infant humans.
Each chapter covers the physiology of the animal's perceptive organs, auditory receptors and pathways, analyzing how neuroactive substances, endocrine control and chemical changes in the environment affects these factors. This book is a valuable resource for researchers and advanced students seeking first-rate material on the neuroendocrinological effects of animal behavior and communication.
I. Introduction
II. Sound production and perception
1. Sound production and perception in invertebrates
2. Sound production and perception in vertebrates
2.1 Underwater sound production and perception
2.2 Terrestrial sound production
III. The Biology and Politics of a Silent Spring
3. Endocrine disruption of vocalizations
4. Governmental actions against this increasing problem in the U.S.
5. Green chemistry as potential alternatives
6. Concluding remarks
Dr Cheryl S. Rosenfeld has published extensively on how maternal diet and developmental exposure to endocrine-disrupting compounds, including bisphenol A (BPA) and ethinyl estradiol (EE) affect offspring outcomes, such as neurobehavioral disruptions. She has been continually funded through the National Institutes of Health, including National Cancer Institute, National Institute of Child Health and Development (NICHD) and National Institute of Environmental Health and Sciences (NIEHS) for this work on developmental origins of health and disease. She has written several review articles and book chapters, including the most recent one, Animal Models of Transgenerational Effects, in Transgenerational Epigenetics: Evidence and Debate.
Dr Frauke Hoffmann received her diploma from the Free University of Berlin, Germany, in 2008 after she finished a project on ultrasonic vocalizations of male house mice in collaboration with Prof Dr Dustin Penn from the Konrad Lorenz Institute for Ethology (University of Vienna, Austria). She then went on to obtain her PhD in 2012 at the Humboldt University of Berlin and the Leibniz-Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries still focusing on animal communication and vocalization: She developed a non-invasive method for the detection of EDCs by examining the vocalizations of the anuran Xenopus laevis in detail. Frauke Hoffmann is currently a research associate at the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment, focusing on the evaluation and regulatory risk assessment of chemicals under REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals) with regards to human health.