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Mortessagne E, Bovet D, Nozières C, Pouydebat E, Pifferi F. Cognitive performance of grey mouse lemurs (Microcebus murinus) during a discrimination learning task: Effect of the emotional valence of stimuli. Am J Primatol 2024:e23667. [PMID: 39072837 DOI: 10.1002/ajp.23667] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/26/2024] [Revised: 06/16/2024] [Accepted: 07/12/2024] [Indexed: 07/30/2024]
Abstract
Emotions are omnipresent in many animals' lives. It is a complex concept that encompasses physiological, subjective, behavioural and cognitive aspects. While the complex relationship between emotion and cognition has been well studied in humans and in some nonhuman primates, it remains rather unexplored for other nonhuman primate species, such as lemurs. In our study, we evaluated the performance of N = 48 grey mouse lemurs (Microcebus murinus) in a discrimination learning task using visual emotional stimuli. We tested whether the type of visual stimulus (positive, negative or neutral) influenced the cognitive performance of mouse lemurs. Individuals had to learn to discriminate between two platforms according to the associated visual stimuli and to jump to the target platform (leading to a reward). Our main finding was that emotional stimuli, whether positive or negative in valence, impaired cognitive performance when used as a target. Specifically, the lowest success rate occurred when the target was associated with the emotional stimuli, and the highest success rate occurred when it was associated with neutral stimuli. Our results show a similar pattern to that found in other primate species and support the adaptive role of emotion. Our results also support that individual differences could be a factor impacting the relation between emotion and cognition. This study is the first to explore how emotions interfere with the cognitive abilities of a lemur species and highlights the importance of acknowledging emotion in mouse lemurs as well as studying the emotion-cognition interaction in a wider range of primate species.
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Affiliation(s)
- E Mortessagne
- UMR CNRS/MNHN 7179, Mécanismes Adaptatifs et Evolution, Brunoy, France
| | - D Bovet
- Laboratoire Ethologie Cognition Développement, Université Paris Nanterre, UPL, Nanterre, France
| | - C Nozières
- UMR CNRS/MNHN 7179, Mécanismes Adaptatifs et Evolution, Brunoy, France
| | - E Pouydebat
- UMR CNRS/MNHN 7179, Mécanismes Adaptatifs et Evolution, Brunoy, France
| | - F Pifferi
- UMR CNRS/MNHN 7179, Mécanismes Adaptatifs et Evolution, Brunoy, France
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2
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Iwińska K, Wirowska M, Borowski Z, Boratyński Z, Solecki P, Ciesielski M, Boratyński JS. Energy allocation is revealed while behavioural performance persists after fire disturbance. J Exp Biol 2024; 227:jeb247114. [PMID: 38323432 DOI: 10.1242/jeb.247114] [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: 12/12/2023] [Accepted: 01/31/2024] [Indexed: 02/08/2024]
Abstract
Metabolic physiology and animal behaviour are often considered to be linked, positively or negatively, according to either the performance or allocation models. Performance seems to predominate over allocation in natural systems, but the constraining environmental context may reveal allocation limitations to energetically expensive behaviours. Habitat disturbance, such as the large-scale fire that burnt wetlands of Biebrza National Park (NE Poland), degrades natural ecosystems. It arguably reduces food and shelter availability, modifies predator-prey interactions, and poses a direct threat for animal survival, such as that of the wetland specialist root vole Microtus oeconomus. We hypothesized that fire disturbance induces physiology-behaviour co-expression, as a consequence of changed environmental context. We repeatedly measured maintenance and exercise metabolism, and behavioural responses to the open field, in a root voles from post-fire and unburnt locations. Highly repeatable maintenance metabolism and distance moved during behavioural tests correlated positively, but relatively labile exercise metabolism did not covary with behaviour. At the same time, voles from a post-fire habitat had higher maintenance metabolism and moved shorter distances than voles from unburnt areas. We conclude there is a prevalence of the performance mechanism, but simultaneous manifestation of context-dependent allocation constraints of the physiology-behaviour covariation after disturbance. The last occurs at the within-individual level, indicating the significance of behavioural plasticity in the context of environmental disturbance.
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Affiliation(s)
- Karolina Iwińska
- University of Białystok Doctoral School in Exact and Natural Sciences, 15-245 Białystok, Poland
| | - Martyna Wirowska
- Adam Mickiewicz University, Department of Systematic Zoology, 61-614 Poznań, Poland
| | | | - Zbyszek Boratyński
- BIOPOLIS, CIBIO/InBio, Research Center in Biodiversity & Genetic Resources, University of Porto, 4485-661 Vairão, Portugal
| | - Paweł Solecki
- Faculty of Electronics and Information Technology, Warsaw University of Technology, 00-665 Warsaw, Poland
| | | | - Jan S Boratyński
- Mammal Research Institute, Polish Academy of Sciences, 17-230 Białowieża, Poland
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Menário Costa W, King WJ, Bonnet T, Festa-Bianchet M, Kruuk LEB. Early-life behavior, survival, and maternal personality in a wild marsupial. Behav Ecol 2023; 34:1002-1012. [PMID: 37969552 PMCID: PMC10636729 DOI: 10.1093/beheco/arad070] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/29/2022] [Revised: 06/22/2023] [Accepted: 08/28/2023] [Indexed: 11/17/2023] Open
Abstract
Individual behavior varies for many reasons, but how early in life are such differences apparent, and are they under selection? We investigated variation in early-life behavior in a wild eastern gray kangaroo (Macropus giganteus) population, and quantified associations of behavior with early survival. Behavior of young was measured while still in the pouch and as subadults, and survival to weaning was monitored. We found consistent variation between offspring of different mothers in levels of activity at the pouch stage, in flight initiation distance (FID) as subadults, and in subadult survival, indicating similarity between siblings. There was no evidence of covariance between the measures of behavior at the pouch young versus subadult stages, nor of covariance of the early-life behavioral traits with subadult survival. However, there was a strong covariance between FIDs of mothers and those of their offspring tested at different times. Further, of the total repeatability of subadult FID (51.5%), more than half could be attributed to differences between offspring of different mothers. Our results indicate that 1) behavioral variation is apparent at a very early stage of development (still in the pouch in the case of this marsupial); 2) between-mother differences can explain much of the repeatability (or "personality") of juvenile behavior; and 3) mothers and offspring exhibit similar behavioral responses to stimuli. However, 4) we found no evidence of selection via covariance between early-life or maternal behavioral traits and juvenile survival in this wild marsupial.
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Affiliation(s)
- Weliton Menário Costa
- Division of Ecology & Evolution, Research School of Biology, Australian National University, Canberra Australian Capital Territory, 2601, Australia
| | - Wendy J King
- Division of Ecology & Evolution, Research School of Biology, Australian National University, Canberra Australian Capital Territory, 2601, Australia
- Département de biologie, Université de Sherbrooke, 2500 Boulevard de l’Université, Sherbrooke, Québec, J1K 2R1, Canada
| | - Timothée Bonnet
- Division of Ecology & Evolution, Research School of Biology, Australian National University, Canberra Australian Capital Territory, 2601, Australia
- French National Centre for Scientific Research, Centre d’Études Biologiques de Chizé, UMR 7372 CNRS-La Rochelle Université, 79360 Villiers en Bois, France
| | - Marco Festa-Bianchet
- Division of Ecology & Evolution, Research School of Biology, Australian National University, Canberra Australian Capital Territory, 2601, Australia
- Département de biologie, Université de Sherbrooke, 2500 Boulevard de l’Université, Sherbrooke, Québec, J1K 2R1, Canada
| | - Loeske E B Kruuk
- Division of Ecology & Evolution, Research School of Biology, Australian National University, Canberra Australian Capital Territory, 2601, Australia
- Institute of Ecology and Evolution, School of Biological Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH9 3FL, UK
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Strijker BN, Iwińska K, van der Zalm B, Zub K, Boratyński JS. Is personality and its association with energetics sex-specific in yellow-necked mice Apodemus flavicollis? Ecol Evol 2023; 13:e10233. [PMID: 37408630 PMCID: PMC10318423 DOI: 10.1002/ece3.10233] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/06/2023] [Revised: 06/05/2023] [Accepted: 06/09/2023] [Indexed: 07/07/2023] Open
Abstract
For the last two decades, behavioral physiologists aimed to explain a plausible covariation between energetics and personality, predicted by the "pace-of-life syndrome" (POLS) hypothesis. However, the results of these attempts are mixed with no definitive answer as to which of the two most acknowledged models "performance" or "allocation" predicts covariation between consistent among-individual variation in metabolism and repeatable behavior (animal personality). The general conclusion is that the association between personality and energetics is rather context-dependent. Life-history, behavior, and physiology as well as its plausible covariation can be considered a part of sexual dimorphism. However, up to now, only a few studies demonstrated a sex-specific correlation between metabolism and personality. Therefore, we tested the relationships between physiological and personality traits in a single population of yellow-necked mice Apodemus flavicollis in the context of a plausible between-sexes difference in this covariation. We hypothesized that the performance model will explain proactive behavior in males and the allocation model will apply to females. Behavioral traits were determined using the latency of risk-taking and the open field tests, whereas the basal metabolic rates (BMR) was measured using indirect calorimetry. We have found a positive correlation between body mass-adjusted BMR and repeatable proactive behavior in male mice, which can support the performance model. However, the females were rather consistent mainly in avoidance of risk-taking that did not correlate with BMR, suggesting essential differences in personality between sexes. Most likely, the lack of convincing association between energetics and personality traits at the population level is caused by a different selection acting on the life histories of males and females. This may only result in weak support for the predictions of the POLS hypothesis when assuming that only a single model explaining the link between physiology and behavior operates in males and females. Thus, there is a need to consider the differences between sexes in behavioral studies to evaluate this hypothesis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Beau N. Strijker
- Van Hall LarensteinUniversity of Applied SciencesLeeuwardenThe Netherlands
| | - Karolina Iwińska
- University of Białystok Doctoral School in Exact and Natural SciencesBiałystokPoland
- Mammal Research InstitutePolish Academy of SciencesBiałowieżaPoland
| | - Bram van der Zalm
- Van Hall LarensteinUniversity of Applied SciencesLeeuwardenThe Netherlands
| | - Karol Zub
- Mammal Research InstitutePolish Academy of SciencesBiałowieżaPoland
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Martine P, Aude A. Parental age at conception on mouse lemur's offspring longevity: Sex-specific maternal effects. PLoS One 2022; 17:e0265783. [PMID: 36580457 PMCID: PMC9799291 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0265783] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/07/2022] [Accepted: 11/22/2022] [Indexed: 12/30/2022] Open
Abstract
Parental age at conception often influences offspring's longevity, a phenomenon referred as the "Lansing effect" described in large variety of organisms. But, the majority of the results refer to the survival of juveniles, mainly explained by an inadequate parental care by the elderly parents, mostly the mothers. Studies on the effect of parental age on offspring's longevity in adulthood remain few, except in humans for whom effects of parental age vary according to statistical models or socioeconomic environments. In a small primate in which the longevity reaches up to 13 years, we investigated the effects of parental age at conception on the longevity of offspring (N = 278) issued from parents with known longevity. None of the postnatal parameters (body mass at 30 and 60 days after birth, size and composition of the litter) influenced offspring's longevity. Mothers' age at conception negatively affected offspring's longevity in males but not in females. By contrast, fathers' age at conception did not influence offspring's longevity. Finally, the longevity of female offspring was significantly positively related to the longevity of both parents. Compared with current studies, the surprisingly minor effect of fathers 'age was related to the high seasonal reproduction and the particular telomere biology of mouse lemurs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Perret Martine
- UMR 7179, Adaptive mechanisms and Evolution, MECADEV, Brunoy, France
- * E-mail:
| | - Anzeraey Aude
- UMR 7179, Adaptive mechanisms and Evolution, MECADEV, Brunoy, France
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Chaudron Y, Pifferi F, Aujard F. Overview of age-related changes in psychomotor and cognitive functions in a prosimian primate, the gray mouse lemur (Microcebus murinus): Recent advances in risk factors and antiaging interventions. Am J Primatol 2021; 83:e23337. [PMID: 34706117 DOI: 10.1002/ajp.23337] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/03/2021] [Revised: 09/23/2021] [Accepted: 09/25/2021] [Indexed: 01/13/2023]
Abstract
Aging is not homogeneous in humans and the determinants leading to differences between subjects are not fully understood. Impaired glucose homeostasis is a major risk factor for cognitive decline in middle-aged humans, pointing at the existence of early markers of unhealthy aging. The gray mouse lemur (Microcebus murinus), a small lemuriform Malagasy primate, shows relatively slow aging with decreased psychomotor capacities at middle-age (around 5-year old). In some cases (∼10%), it spontaneously leads to pathological aging. In this case, some age-related deficits, such as severe cognitive decline, brain atrophy, amyloidosis, and glucoregulatory imbalance are congruent with what is observed in humans. In the present review, we inventory the changes occurring in psychomotor and cognitive functions during healthy and pathological aging in mouse lemur. It includes a summary of the cerebral, metabolic, and cellular alterations that occur during aging and their relation to cognitive decline. As nutrition is one of the major nonpharmacological antiaging strategies with major potential effects on cognitive performances, we also discuss its role in brain functions and cognitive decline in this species. We show that the overall approach of aging studies in the gray mouse lemur offers promising ways of investigation for understanding, prevention, and treatments of pathological aging in humans.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yohann Chaudron
- UMR CNRS/MNHN 7179, Mécanismes Adaptatifs et Evolution, Brunoy, France
| | - Fabien Pifferi
- UMR CNRS/MNHN 7179, Mécanismes Adaptatifs et Evolution, Brunoy, France
| | - Fabienne Aujard
- UMR CNRS/MNHN 7179, Mécanismes Adaptatifs et Evolution, Brunoy, France
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Zablocki-Thomas P, Lailvaux S, Aujard F, Pouydebat E, Herrel A. Maternal and genetic correlations between morphology and physical performance traits in a small captive primate, Microcebus murinus. Biol J Linn Soc Lond 2021. [DOI: 10.1093/biolinnean/blab071] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/13/2022]
Abstract
Abstract
Physical performance traits are key components of fitness and direct targets of selection. Although maternal effects have important influences on integrated phenotypes, their contributions to variation in performance and to phenotypic traits associated with performance remain poorly understood. We used an animal model to quantify the contribution of maternal effects to performance trait variation, in addition to the genetic and maternal correlations between performance and the relevant underlying morphology in Microcebus murinus. We showed that bite force is heritable (h2 ≈ 0.23) and that maternal effects are an important source of variation, resulting in a medium inclusive heritability (IH2 ≈ 0.47). Bite force and head depth showed a significant genetic correlation (0.70), and other genetic correlations were generally high (0.63 for bite force and head width; 0.41 for pull strength and radius length, albeit not significant), as were the maternal correlations for bite force and head dimensions (0.44, 0.73 and 0.29). Finally, we found differences in evolvability for pull strength and bite force that were also consistent with a higher potential for evolutionary change in pull force. This demonstrates clear effects of the maternal environment on performance expression and on the relationships between morphology and performance. This illustrates the importance of accounting for maternal identity when considering the heritabilities of functional traits.
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Affiliation(s)
- Pauline Zablocki-Thomas
- UMR 7179 CNRS/MNHN, Département Adaptations du Vivant, Bâtiment d’Anatomie Comparée, Paris, France
- California National Primate Research Center, Davis, CA, USA
| | - Simon Lailvaux
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of New Orleans, New Orleans, LA, USA
| | - Fabienne Aujard
- UMR 7179 CNRS/MNHN, Département Adaptations du Vivant, Bâtiment d’Anatomie Comparée, Paris, France
| | - Emmanuelle Pouydebat
- UMR 7179 CNRS/MNHN, Département Adaptations du Vivant, Bâtiment d’Anatomie Comparée, Paris, France
| | - Anthony Herrel
- UMR 7179 CNRS/MNHN, Département Adaptations du Vivant, Bâtiment d’Anatomie Comparée, Paris, France
- Evolutionary Morphology of Vertebrates, Ghent University, K.L. Ledeganckstraat, Ghent, Belgium
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Fritz RG, Zimmermann E, Meier M, Mestre-Francés N, Radespiel U, Schmidtke D. Neurobiological substrates of animal personality and cognition in a nonhuman primate (Microcebus murinus). Brain Behav 2020; 10:e01752. [PMID: 32683780 PMCID: PMC7507526 DOI: 10.1002/brb3.1752] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/12/2020] [Revised: 05/31/2020] [Accepted: 06/22/2020] [Indexed: 12/16/2022] Open
Abstract
INTRODUCTION The gray mouse lemur (Microcebus murinus) is an important nonhuman primate model in biomedical research. Numerous studies investigated mouse lemur behavior and possible factors underlying interindividual variation in both, animal personality and cognitive performance. Some effects, such as an age-related decline in executive functioning, have robustly been found across laboratory colonies; however, little is known about the brain structural substrates in mouse lemurs. METHODS Here, we provide first exploratory data linking in vivo magnetic resonance imaging of 34 mouse lemurs to performance in a standardized, touchscreen-based task on object discrimination and reversal learning as well as to animal personality under different scenarios in an open field. RESULTS High interindividual variability in both brain morphometric and behavioral measurements was found, but only few significant correlations between brain structure and behavior were revealed: Object discrimination learning was linked to the volume of the hippocampus and to temporal lobe thickness, while reversal learning was linked to thalamic volume and the thickness of the anterior cingulate lobe. Emergence latency into the open field correlated with volume of the amygdala. General exploration-avoidance in the empty open-field arena correlated with thicknesses of the anterior cingulate lobe and fronto-parietal substructures. Neophilia, assessed as exploration of a novel object placed in the arena, among others, related to the volume of the caudate nucleus. CONCLUSION In summary, our data suggest a prominent role of temporal structures (including the hippocampus) for learning capability, as well as thalamic and anterior cingulate structures for cognitive flexibility and response inhibition. The amygdala, the anterior cingulate lobe, and the caudate nucleus are particularly linked to animal personality in the open-field setting. These findings are congruent with the comparative psychological literature and provide a valuable basis for future studies elucidating aspects of behavioral variation in this nonhuman primate model.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rebecca Grace Fritz
- Institute of Zoology, University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, Hannover, Germany
| | - Elke Zimmermann
- Institute of Zoology, University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, Hannover, Germany
| | - Martin Meier
- ZTL-Imaging, Institute of Laboratory Animal Science, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany
| | | | - Ute Radespiel
- Institute of Zoology, University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, Hannover, Germany
| | - Daniel Schmidtke
- Institute of Zoology, University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, Hannover, Germany
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