Highlights•Fish have a variety of systems to determine sex, find mates, and time
reproduction.•Factors that lead to spawning occur across multiple timescales.•Core …

Natural variations across animals in form, function, and behavior have long been sources of
inspiration to scientists. Despite this, experimentalists focusing on the neural bases of …

Male and female animals typically display innate sex-specific mating behaviors, which, in
vertebrates, are highly dependent on sex steroid signaling. While estradiol-17β (E2) …

Social familiarity affects mating preference among various vertebrates. Here, we show that
visual contact of a potential mating partner before mating (visual familiarization) enhances …

In most species, females time reproduction to coincide with fertility. Thus, identifying factors
that signal fertility to the brain can provide access to neural circuits that control sexual …

A critical step for speciation in the face of gene flow is the origination of reproductive
isolation. The evolution of assortative mating greatly facilitates this process. Assortative …

Sex differences in behavior and cognition can be driven by differential selection pressures
from the environment and in the underlying neuromolecular mechanisms of decision …

Pheromones play essential roles in reproduction in many species. Prostaglandin F2α
(PGF2α) acts as a female reproductive hormone and as a sex pheromone in some species …

Cooperative behavior is widespread among animals, yet the neural mechanisms have not
been studied in detail. We examined cooperative territory defense behavior and associated …

Pheromones are chemical signals that facilitate communication between animals, and most
animals use pheromones for reproduction and other forms of social behavior. The …