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Welklin JF, Sonnenberg BR, Branch CL, Heinen VK, Pitera AM, Benedict LM, Whitenack LE, Bridge ES, Pravosudov VV. Spatial cognitive ability is associated with longevity in food-caching chickadees. Science 2024; 385:1111-1115. [PMID: 39236187 DOI: 10.1126/science.adn5633] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/15/2023] [Revised: 04/01/2024] [Accepted: 07/19/2024] [Indexed: 09/07/2024]
Abstract
Cognitive abilities are hypothesized to affect survival and life span in nonhuman animals. However, most tests of this hypothesis have relied on interspecific comparisons of indirect measures of cognitive ability, such as brain size. We present direct evidence that individual variation in cognitive abilities is associated with differences in life span in a wild food caching bird. We measured the spatial cognitive abilities and tracked the life span of 227 mountain chickadees (Poecile gambeli) in their natural environment and found that individuals with better spatial learning and memory abilities involved in food caching lived longer. These results confirm that enhanced cognitive abilities can be associated with longer life in wild animals and that selection on cognitive abilities can lead to increased life span.
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Branch CL, Welklin JF, Sonnenberg BR, Benedict LM, Heinen VK, Pitera AM, Bridge ES, Pravosudov VV. What's in a mate? Social pairing decisions and spatial cognitive ability in food-caching mountain chickadees. Proc Biol Sci 2023; 290:20231073. [PMID: 37700643 PMCID: PMC10498033 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2023.1073] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/15/2023] [Accepted: 08/14/2023] [Indexed: 09/14/2023] Open
Abstract
While researchers have investigated mating decisions for decades, gaps remain in our understanding of how behaviour influences social mate choice. We compared spatial cognitive performance and food caching propensity within social pairs of mountain chickadees inhabiting differentially harsh winter climates to understand how these measures contribute to social mate choice. Chickadees rely on specialized spatial cognitive abilities to recover food stores and survive harsh winters, and females can discriminate among males with varying spatial cognition. Because spatial cognition and caching propensity are critical for survival and likely heritable, pairing with a mate with such enhanced traits may provide indirect benefits to offspring. Comparing the behaviour of social mates, we found that spatial cognitive performance approached a significant correlation within pairs at low, but not at high elevation. We found no correlation within pairs in spatial reversal cognitive performance at either elevation; however, females at high elevation tended to perform better than their social mates. Finally, we found that caching propensity correlated within pairs at low, while males cached significantly more food than their social mates at high elevations. These results suggest that cognition and caching propensity may influence social mating decisions, but only in certain environments and for some aspects of cognition.
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Affiliation(s)
- Carrie L. Branch
- Department of Psychology, The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada
| | | | - Benjamin R. Sonnenberg
- Department of Biology, University of Nevada, Reno, Reno, NV, USA
- Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation Biology Graduate Program, University of Nevada, Reno, Reno, NV, USA
| | - Lauren M. Benedict
- Department of Biology, University of Nevada, Reno, Reno, NV, USA
- Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation Biology Graduate Program, University of Nevada, Reno, Reno, NV, USA
| | | | - Angela M. Pitera
- Department of Biology, University of Nevada, Reno, Reno, NV, USA
- Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation Biology Graduate Program, University of Nevada, Reno, Reno, NV, USA
| | - Eli S. Bridge
- Department of Biology, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, USA
| | - Vladimir V. Pravosudov
- Department of Biology, University of Nevada, Reno, Reno, NV, USA
- Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation Biology Graduate Program, University of Nevada, Reno, Reno, NV, USA
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Heinen VK, Pitera AM, Sonnenberg BR, Branch CL, Benedict LM, Welklin JF, Whitenack LE, Bridge ES, Pravosudov VV. Food-caching chickadees with specialized spatial cognition do not use scrounging as a stable strategy when learning a spatial task. Proc Biol Sci 2023; 290:20230900. [PMID: 37434529 PMCID: PMC10336377 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2023.0900] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/19/2023] [Accepted: 06/09/2023] [Indexed: 07/13/2023] Open
Abstract
Social animals may use alternative strategies when foraging, with producer-scrounger being one stable dichotomy of strategies. While 'producers' search and discover new food sources, 'scroungers' obtain food discovered by producers. Previous work suggests that differences in cognitive abilities may influence tendencies toward being either a producer or a scrounger, but scrounging behaviour in the context of specialized cognitive abilities is less understood. We investigated whether food-caching mountain chickadees, which rely on spatial cognition to retrieve food caches, engage in scrounging when learning a spatial task. We analysed data from seven seasons of spatial cognition testing, using arrays of radio frequency identification-enabled bird feeders, to identify and quantify potential scrounging behaviour. Chickadees rarely engaged in scrounging, scrounging was not repeatable within individuals and nearly all scrounging events occurred before the bird learned the 'producer' strategy. Scrounging was less frequent in harsher winters, but adults scrounged more than juveniles, and birds at higher elevations scrounged more than chickadees at lower elevations. There was no clear association between spatial cognitive abilities and scrounging frequency. Overall, our study suggests that food-caching species with specialized spatial cognition do not use scrounging as a stable strategy when learning a spatial task, instead relying on learning abilities.
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Affiliation(s)
- Virginia K. Heinen
- Department of Biology and Evolution, University of Nevada, Ecology Evolution and Conservation Biology Graduate Program, Reno, NV 89557, USA
| | - Angela M. Pitera
- Department of Biology and Evolution, University of Nevada, Ecology Evolution and Conservation Biology Graduate Program, Reno, NV 89557, USA
| | - Benjamin R. Sonnenberg
- Department of Biology and Evolution, University of Nevada, Ecology Evolution and Conservation Biology Graduate Program, Reno, NV 89557, USA
| | - Carrie L. Branch
- Department of Biology and Evolution, University of Nevada, Ecology Evolution and Conservation Biology Graduate Program, Reno, NV 89557, USA
- Department of Psychology, The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada, N6A 5C2
| | - Lauren M. Benedict
- Department of Biology and Evolution, University of Nevada, Ecology Evolution and Conservation Biology Graduate Program, Reno, NV 89557, USA
| | - Joseph F. Welklin
- Department of Biology and Evolution, University of Nevada, Ecology Evolution and Conservation Biology Graduate Program, Reno, NV 89557, USA
| | - Lauren E. Whitenack
- Department of Biology and Evolution, University of Nevada, Ecology Evolution and Conservation Biology Graduate Program, Reno, NV 89557, USA
| | | | - Vladimir V. Pravosudov
- Department of Biology and Evolution, University of Nevada, Ecology Evolution and Conservation Biology Graduate Program, Reno, NV 89557, USA
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The current state of carnivore cognition. Anim Cogn 2023; 26:37-58. [PMID: 36333496 DOI: 10.1007/s10071-022-01709-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/15/2022] [Revised: 10/10/2022] [Accepted: 10/20/2022] [Indexed: 11/06/2022]
Abstract
The field of animal cognition has advanced rapidly in the last 25 years. Through careful and creative studies of animals in captivity and in the wild, we have gained critical insights into the evolution of intelligence, the cognitive capacities of a diverse array of taxa, and the importance of ecological and social environments, as well as individual variation, in the expression of cognitive abilities. The field of animal cognition, however, is still being influenced by some historical tendencies. For example, primates and birds are still the majority of study species in the field of animal cognition. Studies of diverse taxa improve the generalizability of our results, are critical for testing evolutionary hypotheses, and open new paths for understanding cognition in species with vastly different morphologies. In this paper, we review the current state of knowledge of cognition in mammalian carnivores. We discuss the advantages of studying cognition in Carnivorans and the immense progress that has been made across many cognitive domains in both lab and field studies of carnivores. We also discuss the current constraints that are associated with studying carnivores. Finally, we explore new directions for future research in studies of carnivore cognition.
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Huang SY, Schaening-Lopez D, Halterman V, Pravosudov VV, Branch CL. Differences in daily singing routines reflect male condition along a montane gradient. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 2022. [DOI: 10.1007/s00265-022-03246-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
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Griebling HJ, Sluka CM, Stanton LA, Barrett LP, Bastos JB, Benson-Amram S. How technology can advance the study of animal cognition in the wild. Curr Opin Behav Sci 2022. [DOI: 10.1016/j.cobeha.2022.101120] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/03/2022]
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Shogren EH. Cognition: 'Caching' in to find the genetic basis of spatial cognitive ability. Curr Biol 2022; 32:R37-R39. [PMID: 35015993 DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2021.11.048] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022]
Abstract
Natural selection on spatial cognition requires genetic heritability of traits contributing to cognitive ability. A new study of food-caching birds demonstrates that genomic markers linked to neural development are associated with variation in cognitive phenotypes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elsie H Shogren
- Department of Biology, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY 14627, USA.
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Cognition and reproductive success in cowbirds. Learn Behav 2021; 50:178-188. [PMID: 34918202 PMCID: PMC8979880 DOI: 10.3758/s13420-021-00506-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 11/30/2021] [Indexed: 11/22/2022]
Abstract
Understanding the relationships between cognitive abilities and fitness is integral to an evolutionary study of brain and behavior. However, these relationships are often difficult to measure and detect. Here we draw upon an opportunistic sample of brown-headed cowbird (Molothrus ater) subjects that had two separate research experiences: First, they engaged in a large series of cognitive tests in David Sherry’s Lab in the Advanced Facility for Avian Research (AFAR) at Western University, then subsequently moved to the Field Avian Research Megalab (FARM) at Wilfrid Laurier University where they lived in large breeding flocks in aviaries with other wild-caught cowbirds. Thus, we had extensive measures of cognitive abilities, breeding behavior, and reproductive success for these birds. We report here, for the fist time, the surprisingly strong connections we found among these different measures. Female cowbirds’ spatial cognitive abilities correlated positively with how intensely they were courted by males, and with their overall egg production. Males’ spatial cognition correlated positively with their ability to engage in singing contests (“countersinging”) with other males. In addition, a separate non-spatial cognitive ability correlated positively with the attractiveness of the songs they sung. In sum, these results suggest the cognitive skills assessed in the lab were strongly connected to breeding behavior and reproductive success. Moreover, since certain cognitive abilities related to different aspects of breeding success, it suggests that cognitive modules may have specialized adaptive value, but also that these specialized skills may interact and influence fitness in surprising ways.
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Benedict LM, Pitera AM, Branch CL, Sonnenberg BR, Heinen VK, Bridge ES, Pravosudov VV. Information maintenance of food sources is associated with environment, spatial cognition and age in a food-caching bird. Anim Behav 2021. [DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2021.10.009] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/19/2022]
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Reproduction is affected by individual breeding experience but not pair longevity in a socially monogamous bird. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 2021. [DOI: 10.1007/s00265-021-03042-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
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Heinen VK, Pitera AM, Sonnenberg BR, Benedict LM, Bridge ES, Farine DR, Pravosudov VV. Food discovery is associated with different reliance on social learning and lower cognitive flexibility across environments in a food-caching bird. Proc Biol Sci 2021; 288:20202843. [PMID: 34004135 PMCID: PMC8131126 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2020.2843] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/16/2020] [Accepted: 04/26/2021] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Social learning is a primary mechanism for information acquisition in social species. Despite many benefits, social learning may be disadvantageous when independent learning is more efficient. For example, searching independently may be more advantageous when food sources are ephemeral and unpredictable. Individual differences in cognitive abilities can also be expected to influence social information use. Specifically, better spatial memory can make a given environment more predictable for an individual by allowing it to better track food sources. We investigated how resident food-caching chickadees discovered multiple novel food sources in both harsher, less predictable high elevation and milder, more predictable low elevation winter environments. Chickadees at high elevation were faster at discovering multiple novel food sources and discovered more food sources than birds at low elevation. While birds at both elevations used social information, the contribution of social learning to food discovery was significantly lower at high elevation. At both elevations, chickadees with better spatial cognitive flexibility were slower at discovering food sources, likely because birds with lower spatial cognitive flexibility are worse at tracking natural resources and therefore spend more time exploring. Overall, our study supported the prediction that harsh environments should favour less reliance on social learning.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Angela M. Pitera
- Department of Biology, University of Nevada Reno, Reno, NV 89557, USA
| | | | | | - Eli S. Bridge
- Oklahoma Biological Survey, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK 73019, USA
| | - Damien R. Farine
- Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, University of Zurich, 8057 Zurich, Switzerland
- Department of Collective Behaviour, Max Planck Institute of Animal Behaviour, 78464 Konstanz, Germany
- Centre for the Advanced Study of Collective Behaviour, University of Konstanz, 78464 Konstanz, Germany
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Hermer E, Murphy B, Chaine AS, Morand-Ferron J. Great tits who remember more accurately have difficulty forgetting, but variation is not driven by environmental harshness. Sci Rep 2021; 11:10083. [PMID: 33980907 PMCID: PMC8114932 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-89125-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/30/2020] [Accepted: 04/14/2021] [Indexed: 02/03/2023] Open
Abstract
The causes of individual variation in memory are poorly understood in wild animals. Harsh environments with sparse or rapidly changing food resources are hypothesized to favour more accurate spatial memory to allow animals to return to previously visited patches when current patches are depleted. A potential cost of more accurate spatial memory is proactive interference, where accurate memories block the formation of new memories. This relationship between spatial memory, proactive interference, and harsh environments has only been studied in scatter-hoarding animals. We compare spatial memory accuracy and proactive interference performance of non-scatter hoarding great tits (Parus major) from high and low elevations where harshness increases with elevation. In contrast to studies of scatter-hoarders, we did not find a significant difference between high and low elevation birds in their spatial memory accuracy or proactive interference performance. Using a variance partitioning approach, we report the first among-individual trade-off between spatial memory and proactive interference, uncovering variation in memory at the individual level where selection may act. Although we have no evidence of harsh habitats affecting spatial memory, our results suggest that if elevation produced differences in spatial memory between elevations, we could see concurrent changes in how quickly birds can forget.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ethan Hermer
- grid.28046.380000 0001 2182 2255University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON Canada
| | - Ben Murphy
- grid.7836.a0000 0004 1937 1151University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa
| | - Alexis S. Chaine
- Station d’Ecologie Théorique et Expérimentale du CNRS, Moulis, France ,grid.424401.70000 0004 0384 0611Institute for Advanced Studies in Toulouse, Toulouse School of Economics, Toulouse, France
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Heinen VK, Pitera AM, Sonnenberg BR, Benedict LM, Branch CL, Bridge ES, Pravosudov VV. Specialized spatial cognition is associated with reduced cognitive senescence in a food-caching bird. Proc Biol Sci 2021; 288:20203180. [PMID: 33784865 PMCID: PMC8059976 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2020.3180] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/21/2020] [Accepted: 03/05/2021] [Indexed: 12/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Senescence, the gradual reduction and loss of function as organisms age, is a widespread process that is especially pronounced in cognitive abilities. Senescence appears to have a genetic basis and can be affected by evolutionary processes. If cognitive senescence is shaped by natural selection, it may be linked with selection on cognitive abilities needed for survival and reproduction, such that species where fitness is directly related to cognitive abilities should evolve delayed cognitive senescence likely resulting in higher lifetime fitness. We used wild food-caching mountain chickadees, which rely on specialized spatial cognition to recover thousands of food caches annually, to test for cognitive senescence in spatial learning and memory and reversal spatial learning and memory abilities. We detected no signs of age-related senescence in spatial cognitive performance on either task in birds ranging from 1 to 6 years old; older birds actually performed better on spatial learning and memory tasks. Our results therefore suggest that cognitive senescence may be either delayed (potentially appearing after 6 years) or negligible in species with strong selection on cognitive abilities and that food-caching species may present a useful model to investigate mechanisms associated with cognitive senescence.
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Affiliation(s)
- Virginia K Heinen
- Department of Biology, University of Nevada Reno, Reno, NV 89557, USA
| | - Angela M Pitera
- Department of Biology, University of Nevada Reno, Reno, NV 89557, USA
| | | | - Lauren M Benedict
- Department of Biology, University of Nevada Reno, Reno, NV 89557, USA
| | - Carrie L Branch
- Department of Biology, University of Nevada Reno, Reno, NV 89557, USA
- Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14850, USA
| | - Eli S Bridge
- University of Oklahoma, Oklahoma Biological Survey, Norman, OK 73019, USA
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