Pablo Recio, Dalton C Leibold, Ondi L Crino, Kristoffer H Wild, Christopher R Friesen, Basile Mauclaire, Amelia Y Peardon, Daniel W A Noble
{"title":"两种蜥蜴的认知过程在早期环境条件下是稳健的。","authors":"Pablo Recio, Dalton C Leibold, Ondi L Crino, Kristoffer H Wild, Christopher R Friesen, Basile Mauclaire, Amelia Y Peardon, Daniel W A Noble","doi":"10.1093/beheco/araf048","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Animals must acquire new information through learning to adjust their behavior adaptively. However, learning ability can be constrained by conditions experienced during early development, when the brain is especially susceptible to environmental conditions. For example, temperature can result in phenotypically plastic adjustments to growth, metabolism, and learning in ectotherms. In vertebrates, thermal conditions can increase the production of glucocorticoid (GCs) - 'stress' hormones. Maternal GCs can be transmitted to offspring during development, potentially impacting their learning abilities. GCs and thermal environments are, therefore, predicted to have interactive effects on the development of learning in ectotherms. Here, we investigated the combined effects of prenatal corticosterone (CORT) - the main GC in reptiles-and incubation temperature on associative learning using two species of lizards, <i>Lampropholis delicata</i> and <i>L. guichenoti</i>. We manipulated CORT levels and temperature in a 2 × 2 factorial design, and then subjected juveniles to a color-associative learning task. We predicted that elevated CORT and low temperatures would impair associative learning. However, both species showed similar learning rates independently of treatment. Our results suggest that these two species may have evolved mechanisms to maintain learning performance despite prenatal challenges. We also found that color affected decision-making in both species. Overall, we observed a non-learned preference towards blue, underscoring the need to carefully select the color used in cognitive tests involving visual stimuli.</p>","PeriodicalId":8840,"journal":{"name":"Behavioral Ecology","volume":"36 4","pages":"araf048"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5000,"publicationDate":"2025-05-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12202996/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":"{\"title\":\"Cognitive processes are robust to early environmental conditions in two lizard species.\",\"authors\":\"Pablo Recio, Dalton C Leibold, Ondi L Crino, Kristoffer H Wild, Christopher R Friesen, Basile Mauclaire, Amelia Y Peardon, Daniel W A Noble\",\"doi\":\"10.1093/beheco/araf048\",\"DOIUrl\":null,\"url\":null,\"abstract\":\"<p><p>Animals must acquire new information through learning to adjust their behavior adaptively. However, learning ability can be constrained by conditions experienced during early development, when the brain is especially susceptible to environmental conditions. For example, temperature can result in phenotypically plastic adjustments to growth, metabolism, and learning in ectotherms. In vertebrates, thermal conditions can increase the production of glucocorticoid (GCs) - 'stress' hormones. Maternal GCs can be transmitted to offspring during development, potentially impacting their learning abilities. GCs and thermal environments are, therefore, predicted to have interactive effects on the development of learning in ectotherms. Here, we investigated the combined effects of prenatal corticosterone (CORT) - the main GC in reptiles-and incubation temperature on associative learning using two species of lizards, <i>Lampropholis delicata</i> and <i>L. guichenoti</i>. We manipulated CORT levels and temperature in a 2 × 2 factorial design, and then subjected juveniles to a color-associative learning task. We predicted that elevated CORT and low temperatures would impair associative learning. However, both species showed similar learning rates independently of treatment. Our results suggest that these two species may have evolved mechanisms to maintain learning performance despite prenatal challenges. We also found that color affected decision-making in both species. Overall, we observed a non-learned preference towards blue, underscoring the need to carefully select the color used in cognitive tests involving visual stimuli.</p>\",\"PeriodicalId\":8840,\"journal\":{\"name\":\"Behavioral Ecology\",\"volume\":\"36 4\",\"pages\":\"araf048\"},\"PeriodicalIF\":2.5000,\"publicationDate\":\"2025-05-30\",\"publicationTypes\":\"Journal Article\",\"fieldsOfStudy\":null,\"isOpenAccess\":false,\"openAccessPdf\":\"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12202996/pdf/\",\"citationCount\":\"0\",\"resultStr\":null,\"platform\":\"Semanticscholar\",\"paperid\":null,\"PeriodicalName\":\"Behavioral Ecology\",\"FirstCategoryId\":\"93\",\"ListUrlMain\":\"https://doi.org/10.1093/beheco/araf048\",\"RegionNum\":3,\"RegionCategory\":\"环境科学与生态学\",\"ArticlePicture\":[],\"TitleCN\":null,\"AbstractTextCN\":null,\"PMCID\":null,\"EPubDate\":\"2025/7/1 0:00:00\",\"PubModel\":\"eCollection\",\"JCR\":\"Q2\",\"JCRName\":\"BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES\",\"Score\":null,\"Total\":0}","platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Behavioral Ecology","FirstCategoryId":"93","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1093/beheco/araf048","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2025/7/1 0:00:00","PubModel":"eCollection","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES","Score":null,"Total":0}
Cognitive processes are robust to early environmental conditions in two lizard species.
Animals must acquire new information through learning to adjust their behavior adaptively. However, learning ability can be constrained by conditions experienced during early development, when the brain is especially susceptible to environmental conditions. For example, temperature can result in phenotypically plastic adjustments to growth, metabolism, and learning in ectotherms. In vertebrates, thermal conditions can increase the production of glucocorticoid (GCs) - 'stress' hormones. Maternal GCs can be transmitted to offspring during development, potentially impacting their learning abilities. GCs and thermal environments are, therefore, predicted to have interactive effects on the development of learning in ectotherms. Here, we investigated the combined effects of prenatal corticosterone (CORT) - the main GC in reptiles-and incubation temperature on associative learning using two species of lizards, Lampropholis delicata and L. guichenoti. We manipulated CORT levels and temperature in a 2 × 2 factorial design, and then subjected juveniles to a color-associative learning task. We predicted that elevated CORT and low temperatures would impair associative learning. However, both species showed similar learning rates independently of treatment. Our results suggest that these two species may have evolved mechanisms to maintain learning performance despite prenatal challenges. We also found that color affected decision-making in both species. Overall, we observed a non-learned preference towards blue, underscoring the need to carefully select the color used in cognitive tests involving visual stimuli.
期刊介绍:
Studies on the whole range of behaving organisms, including plants, invertebrates, vertebrates, and humans, are included.
Behavioral Ecology construes the field in its broadest sense to include 1) the use of ecological and evolutionary processes to explain the occurrence and adaptive significance of behavior patterns; 2) the use of behavioral processes to predict ecological patterns, and 3) empirical, comparative analyses relating behavior to the environment in which it occurs.