Artificial light at night impairs inhibitory control in a wild songbird

Meijdam, Marjolein; Eens, Marcel; Müller, Wendt

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.163765

Cited by 1 publication

(1 citation statement)

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“…Among these, substantial literature indicates that humans display cognitive impairments owing to ALAN [4][5][6]. Similar effects have been reported for laboratory rodent models [7] and even more severe ones for wild avian populations, in which ALAN-mediated alterations in hormonal homeostasis hamper cognitive functioning [8][9][10][11] (but see [12]). Considering the often-reported influence of individuals' cognitive abilities on fitness (e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 59%

Embryonic exposure to artificial light at night impairs learning abilities and their covariance with behavioural traits in teleost fish

Lucon-Xiccato,

De Russi,

Cannicci

et al. 2023

Biol. Lett.

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The natural light cycle has profound effects on animals' cognitive systems. Its alteration owing to human activities, such as artificial light at night (ALAN), affects the biodiversity of mammalian and avian species by impairing their cognitive functions. The impact of ALAN on cognition, however, has not been investigated in aquatic species, in spite of the common occurrence of this pollution along water bodies. We exposed eggs of a teleost fish (the zebrafish Danio rerio ) to ALAN and, upon hatching, we measured larvae’ cognitive abilities with a habituation learning paradigm. Both control and ALAN-exposed larvae showed habituation learning, but the latter learned significantly slower, suggesting that under ALAN conditions, fish require many more events to acquire ecologically relevant information. We also found that individuals' learning performance significantly covaried with two behavioural traits in the control zebrafish, but ALAN disrupted one of these relationships. Additionally, ALAN resulted in an average increase in larval activity. Our results showed that both fish's cognitive abilities and related individual differences are negatively impacted by light pollution, even after a short exposure in the embryonic stage.

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