Death-Feigning Syndrome

In this chapter, I will discuss the background that led me to begin artificial selection and evolutionary experiments on death-feigning behavior, which I have been conducting since 1997. I will summarize the materials and methods used, as well as the results and their interpretation. To better understand the genetic basis of death feigning, the breeding experiments not only focused on direct responses but also examined correlated responses in various traits. In studies on the Tribolium beetle, working alongside a physiologist, we investigated the dynamics of biogenic amines inside the bodies of beetles exhibiting death-feigning behavior, pursuing the physiology underlying this response. At the core of this work was dopamine, a key neurotransmitter that governs movement in animals. Furthermore, with new collaborators in molecular biology, we applied molecular techniques to explore the mechanisms controlling the duration of death feigning. Together with researchers in engineering, we also conducted experiments that revealed links between death feigning and gait abnormalities in beetles. These findings suggest potential parallels between death-feigning behavior and human motor disorders. We propose that this constellation of traits constitutes what we call the “death-feigning syndrome.”