Introductory Remarks
For good reasons we think of the brain as the master organ shaping the behavior of
an animal. Yet both the central nervous system and behavior are at the mercy of
sufficient and adequate sensory information. This information is provided by
sensory systems responding to different forms of energy and representing the
biological interfaces between the environment and the behaving organism.
As has been known for a long time, there is a considerable degree of filtering,
biasing, and distortion of the theoretically available information, starting way out
in the sensory periphery and continued at the various stages of central nervous
processing. Many kinds of foveae and distorted cortical or other sensory maps (to
name just two examples) reflect the sophistication in the evaluation of the
biologically significant aspects of complex stimulus patterns. Much of this
filtering must have evolved under the constraints of the specific physical and
chemical conditions prevailing in the natural species-specific habitat of an animal,
in the marine environment of a planktonic crustacean in the same way as in the
desert environment of a scorpion. As a consequence of evolution, in many cases
the functional properties of sensory systems nicely match at least some of the
properties of the stimulus patterns encountered under behaviorally relevant
conditions. The detailed spatial and temporal characteristics of these stimulus
patterns may often be of frightening complexity. However, the information
actually used by the animal for the guidance of its behavior has often proved to be
much simpler.
Sensory ecology in its widest sense deals with the acquisition of information and
the ways in which an organism responds to sensory information to organize its
interaction with its environment. The information addressed here informs about
actual environments and habitats as experienced by an animal in its own
individual life. It differs from genetically stored information, which reflects the
environments experienced by past generations.
The ideas behind Ecology of Sensing are not new, and the reader is particularly
referred to the seminal book by Dusenbery (1993). However, with all the
knowledge and understanding now available of the basic principles at work in
many sensory organs, and considering the much-increased appreciation of the
need to experiment and observe under natural conditions, the ecology of sensing is
more likely than ever before to have a great future. Among the first advocates of
sensory ecology was Jakob von Uexkiill who published his Umweltlehre and his
Umwelt und Innenwelt der Tiere as early as 1909. Von Uexkiill always stressed
the uniqueness of the sensory worlds in which different animal species find
themselves living and, as a consequence, underlined the importance of knowing
the particular features in the environment relevant for them.
The present book is an outcome of a symposium organized by us in Vienna in
1999. Its 16 chapters exemplify the diversity of the problems to be dealt with
when we consider the different constraints and opportunities which are associated
For good reasons we think of the brain as the master organ shaping the behavior of
an animal. Yet both the central nervous system and behavior are at the mercy of
sufficient and adequate sensory information. This information is provided by
sensory systems responding to different forms of energy and representing the
biological interfaces between the environment and the behaving organism.
As has been known for a long time, there is a considerable degree of filtering,
biasing, and distortion of the theoretically available information, starting way out
in the sensory periphery and continued at the various stages of central nervous
processing. Many kinds of foveae and distorted cortical or other sensory maps (to
name just two examples) reflect the sophistication in the evaluation of the
biologically significant aspects of complex stimulus patterns. Much of this
filtering must have evolved under the constraints of the specific physical and
chemical conditions prevailing in the natural species-specific habitat of an animal,
in the marine environment of a planktonic crustacean in the same way as in the
desert environment of a scorpion. As a consequence of evolution, in many cases
the functional properties of sensory systems nicely match at least some of the
properties of the stimulus patterns encountered under behaviorally relevant
conditions. The detailed spatial and temporal characteristics of these stimulus
patterns may often be of frightening complexity. However, the information
actually used by the animal for the guidance of its behavior has often proved to be
much simpler.
Sensory ecology in its widest sense deals with the acquisition of information and
the ways in which an organism responds to sensory information to organize its
interaction with its environment. The information addressed here informs about
actual environments and habitats as experienced by an animal in its own
individual life. It differs from genetically stored information, which reflects the
environments experienced by past generations.
The ideas behind Ecology of Sensing are not new, and the reader is particularly
referred to the seminal book by Dusenbery (1993). However, with all the
knowledge and understanding now available of the basic principles at work in
many sensory organs, and considering the much-increased appreciation of the
need to experiment and observe under natural conditions, the ecology of sensing is
more likely than ever before to have a great future. Among the first advocates of
sensory ecology was Jakob von Uexkiill who published his Umweltlehre and his
Umwelt und Innenwelt der Tiere as early as 1909. Von Uexkiill always stressed
the uniqueness of the sensory worlds in which different animal species find
themselves living and, as a consequence, underlined the importance of knowing
the particular features in the environment relevant for them.
The present book is an outcome of a symposium organized by us in Vienna in
1999. Its 16 chapters exemplify the diversity of the problems to be dealt with
when we consider the different constraints and opportunities which are associated