Parasites and behaviour: An ethopharmacological perspective

Ethopharmacology combines an ethological approach to the understanding of t he causes and functions of behaviour with pharmacological analysis of the u nderlying neuromodulatory mechanisms. Recently, this approach has been appl ied to the analysis of the responses of animals to parasitized individuals and to the effects of parasites on various host behaviours (eg. host defenc es, mate responses) and their neurobiological correlates. Martin Kavaliers, Douglas Colwell and Elena Choleris explain here how ethopharmacology can b e used to address the mechanisms that underlie the often subtle effects of parasites on host behaviour.