This is a Preprint and has not been peer reviewed. The published version of this Preprint is available: https://doi.org/10.1111/oik.08481. This is version 2 of this Preprint.
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Abstract
Predation risk during early ontogeny can impact developmental trajectories and permanently alter adult phenotypes. Such phenotypic plasticity often leads to adaptive changes in traits involved in anti-predator responses. While plastic changes in cognition may increase survival, it remains unclear whether early predation experience shapes cognitive investment and drives developmental plasticity in cognitive abilities. Here, we show that predation risk during early ontogeny induces developmental plasticity in two cognitive domains. We reared female guppies (Poecilia reticulata) with and without predator cues and tested their adult cognitive abilities. We found that females reared under simulated predation took longer to learn a simple association task, yet outperformed animals reared without predation threat in a reversal learning task testing cognitive flexibility. These results show that predation pressure during ontogeny shapes adult cognitive abilities, which we argue is likely to be adaptive. Our study highlights the important role of predator-mediated developmental plasticity on cognitive investment in natural populations and the general role of plasticity in cognitive performance.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.32942/osf.io/7xyjb
Subjects
Behavior and Ethology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Life Sciences
Keywords
behavioural flexibility, developmental stress, guppy, phenotypic plasticity, predator cues
Dates
Published: 2021-03-24 15:09
Last Updated: 2021-05-25 04:00
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CC-By Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International
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Data and Code Availability Statement:
Raw data and analysis code are uploaded on FigShare and will be made public on publication.
There are no comments or no comments have been made public for this article.