Social environment affects inhibitory control via developmental plasticity in a fish

Lucon‐Xiccato, Tyrone; Montalbano, Giulia; Reddon, Adam R.; Bertolucci, Cristiano

doi:10.1016/j.anbehav.2021.11.001

Cited by 11 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 92 publications

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“…The effect of predictability aligns with growing reports of cognitive plasticity in teleost fishes in response to other environmental factors (e.g. environment quality [52]; social environment [53]; enrichment [42]; predation risk [54]). All these forms of cognitive plasticity may interact in nature, thereby determining a broad spectrum of individual phenotypes.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 83%

Adaptive phenotypic plasticity induces individual variability along a cognitive trade-off

2023

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Animal species, including humans, display patterns of individual variability in cognition that are difficult to explain. For instance, some individuals perform well in certain cognitive tasks but show difficulties in others. We experimentally analysed the contribution of cognitive plasticity to such variability. Theory suggests that diametrically opposed cognitive phenotypes increase individuals' fitness in environments with different conditions such as resource predictability. Therefore, if selection has generated plasticity that matches individuals’ cognitive phenotypes to the environment, this might produce remarkable cognitive variability. We found that guppies, Poecilia reticulata , exposed to an environment with high resource predictability (i.e. food available at the same time and in the same location) developed enhanced learning abilities. Conversely, guppies exposed to an environment with low resource predictability (i.e. food available at a random time and location) developed enhanced cognitive flexibility and inhibitory control. These cognitive differences align along a trade-off between functions that favour the acquisition of regularities such as learning and functions that adjust behaviour to changing conditions (cognitive flexibility and inhibitory control). Therefore, adaptive cognitive plasticity in response to resource predictability (and potentially similar factors) is a key determinant of cognitive individual differences.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 83%

Adaptive phenotypic plasticity induces individual variability along a cognitive trade-off

2023

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“…However, at least two published studies in guppies contrasted this hypothesis. These studies found that social environment affects inhibitory control and that predation risk affects cognitive flexibility [ 63 , 64 ]. Moreover, results in our recent study of another teleost fish, the medaka, found plasticity of executive functions [ 65 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cognitive Phenotypic Plasticity: Environmental Enrichment Affects Learning but Not Executive Functions in a Teleost Fish, Poecilia reticulata

Montalbano

Bertolucci

Lucon‐Xiccato

2022

Biology

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Many aspects of animal cognition are plastically adjusted in response to the environment through individual experience. A remarkable example of this cognitive phenotypic plasticity is often observed when comparing individuals raised in a barren environment to individuals raised in an enriched environment. Evidence of enrichment-driven cognitive plasticity in teleost fish continues to grow, but it remains restricted to a few cognitive traits. The purpose of this study was to investigate how environmental enrichment affects multiple cognitive traits (learning, cognitive flexibility, and inhibitory control) in the guppy, Poecilia reticulata. To reach this goal, we exposed new-born guppies to different treatments: an enrichment environment with social companions, natural substrate, vegetation, and live prey or a barren environment with none of the above. After a month of treatment, we tested the subjects in a battery of three cognitive tasks. Guppies from the enriched environment learned a color discrimination faster compared to guppies from the environment with no enrichments. We observed no difference between guppies of the two treatments in the cognitive flexibility task, requiring selection of a previously unrewarded stimulus, nor in the inhibitory control task, requiring the inhibition of the attack response toward live prey. Overall, the results indicated that environmental enrichment had an influence on guppies’ learning ability, but not on the remaining cognitive functions investigated.

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“…Zebrafish also show developmental changes in social behaviour (Buske and Gerlai 2011 ). It is worth investigating these ecological changes to test hypotheses on adaptive age variation in inhibitory control (Amici et al 2008 ; Lucon-Xiccato et al 2022 ; Ryer and Olla 1991 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Interspecific differences in developmental mode determine early cognitive abilities in teleost fish

Montalbano,

Bertolucci,

Bisazza

et al. 2023

Anim Cogn

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Most studies on developmental variation in cognition have suggested that individuals are born with reduced or absent cognitive abilities, and thereafter, cognitive performance increases with age during early development. However, these studies have been mainly performed in altricial species, such as humans, in which offspring are extremely immature at birth. In this work, we tested the hypothesis that species with other developmental modes might show different patterns of cognitive development. To this end, we analysed inhibitory control performance in two teleost species with different developmental modes, the zebrafish Danio rerio and the guppy Poecilia reticulata, exploiting a simple paradigm based on spontaneous behaviour and therefore applicable to subjects of different ages. Zebrafish hatch as larvae 3 days after fertilisation, and have an immature nervous system, a situation that mirrors extreme altriciality. We found that at the early stages of development, zebrafish displayed no evidence of inhibitory control, which only begun to emerge after one month of life. Conversely, guppies, which are born after approximately one month of gestation as fully developed and independent individuals, solved the inhibitory control task since their first days of life, although performance increased with sexual maturation. Our study suggests that the typical progression described during early ontogeny in humans and other species might not be the only developmental trend for animals’ cognition and that a species’ developmental mode might determine variation in cognition across subjects of different age.

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Social environment affects inhibitory control via developmental plasticity in a fish

Cited by 11 publications

References 92 publications

Adaptive phenotypic plasticity induces individual variability along a cognitive trade-off

Adaptive phenotypic plasticity induces individual variability along a cognitive trade-off

Cognitive Phenotypic Plasticity: Environmental Enrichment Affects Learning but Not Executive Functions in a Teleost Fish, Poecilia reticulata

Interspecific differences in developmental mode determine early cognitive abilities in teleost fish

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