Proximate pathways underlying social behavior

• Integrative study of animal behavior can both shift and re-enforce paradigms. • Social behavior lends itself well to such an integrative approach. • We emphasize five proximate pathways underlying social behavior. • We recommend taking both a ‘forward’ and ‘reverse’ genomics approach. • We argue for studying transitions between different social states or phenotypes. The organism is the central unit integrating genomic, developmental, and...