Brain size affects performance in a reversal-learning test

Relative telencephalon size does not affect collective motion in the guppy (Poecilia reticulata)

Collective motion is common across all animal taxa, from swarming insects to schools of fish. The collective motion requires intricate behavioral integration among individuals, yet little is known about how evolutionary changes in brain morphology influence the ability for individuals to coordinate behavior in groups. In this study, we utilized guppies that were selectively bred for relative telencephalon size, an aspect of brain morphology that is normally associated with advanced cognitive functions, to examine its role in collective motion using an open-field assay. We analyzed high-resolution tracking data of same-sex shoals consisting of 8 individuals to assess different aspects of collective motion, such as alignment, attraction to nearby shoal members, and swimming speed. Our findings indicate that variation in collective motion in guppy shoals might not be strongly affected by variation in relative telencephalon size. Our study suggests that group dynamics in collectively moving animals are likely not driven by advanced cognitive functions but rather by fundamental cognitive processes stemming from relatively simple rules among neighboring individuals.

Boldness affects novel object recognition in a gecko species

Individual animals exhibit considerable differences in cognitive characteristics associated with personality differences. The cognition-personality link was intensively investigated in the last decade though with mixed results. To grasp the general pattern, a common method should be applied to a wide range of animals. We tested novel object recognition (NOR) in the mourning gecko (Lepidodactylus lugubris) and investigated whether boldness, assessed in an anti-predator context, explained neophobia and how much attention animals pay to their surroundings. Boldness did not simply explain object neophobia but predicted attention to novel objects. Specifically, shy geckos showed shorter latency to approach the novel object than bold geckos only in the changed situation in which distinct types of objects were presented in two successive phases. However, no significant effect of boldness was detected in the unchanged situation in which the same object was presented twice. Our findings suggest that, in the mourning gecko, (1) boldness and object neophobia represent different aspects of personality traits and that (2) boldness underlies sensitivity to slight changes in the environment.

Executive functions and brain morphology of male and female dominant and subordinate cichlid fish

BACKGROUND

Living in a social dominance hierarchy presents different benefits and challenges for dominant and subordinate males and females, which might in turn affect their cognitive needs. Despite the extensive research on social dominance in group-living species, there is still a knowledge gap regarding how social status impacts brain morphology and cognitive abilities.

METHODS

Here, we tested male and female dominants and subordinates of Neolamprologus pulcher, a social cichlid fish species with size-based hierarchy. We ran three executive cognitive function tests for cognitive flexibility (reversal learning test), self-control (detour test), and working memory (object permanence test), followed by brain and brain region size measurements.

RESULTS

Performance was not influenced by social status or sex. However, dominants exhibited a brain-body slope that was relatively steeper than that of subordinates. Furthermore, individual performance in reversal learning and detour tests correlated with brain morphology, with some trade-offs among major brain regions like telencephalon, cerebellum, and optic tectum.

CONCLUSION

As individuals' brain growth strategies varied depending on social status without affecting executive functions, the different associated challenges might yield a potential effect on social cognition instead. Overall, the findings highlight the importance of studying the individual and not just species to understand better how the individual's ecology might shape its brain and cognition.

Insights into adaptive behavioural plasticity from the guppy model system

Behavioural plasticity allows organisms to respond to environmental challenges on short time scales. But what are the ecological and evolutionary processes that underlie behavioural plasticity? The answer to this question is complex and requires experimental dissection of the physiological, neural and molecular mechanisms contributing to behavioural plasticity as well as an understanding of the ecological and evolutionary contexts under which behavioural plasticity is adaptive. Here, we discuss key insights that research with Trinidadian guppies has provided on the underpinnings of adaptive behavioural plasticity. First, we present evidence that guppies exhibit contextual, developmental and transgenerational behavioural plasticity. Next, we review work on behavioural plasticity in guppies spanning three ecological contexts (predation, parasitism and turbidity) and three underlying mechanisms (endocrinological, neurobiological and genetic). Finally, we provide three outstanding questions that could leverage guppies further as a study system and give suggestions for how this research could be done. Research on behavioural plasticity in guppies has provided, and will continue to provide, a valuable opportunity to improve understanding of the ecological and evolutionary causes and consequences of behavioural plasticity.

Cognitive flexibility in urban yellow mongooses, Cynictis penicillata

Cognitive flexibility enables animals to alter their behaviour and respond appropriately to environmental changes. Such flexibility is important in urban settings where environmental changes occur rapidly and continually. We studied whether free-living, urban-dwelling yellow mongooses, Cynictis penicillata, in South Africa, are cognitively flexible in reversal learning and attention task experiments (n = 10). Reversal learning was conducted using two puzzle boxes that were distinct visually and spatially, each containing a preferred or non-preferred food type. Once mongooses learned which box contained the preferred food type, the food types were reversed. The mongooses successfully unlearned their previously learned response in favour of learning a new response, possibly through a win-stay, lose-shift strategy. Attention task experiments were conducted using one puzzle box surrounded by zero, one, two or three objects, introducing various levels of distraction while solving the task. The mongooses were distracted by two and three distractions but were able to solve the task despite the distractions by splitting their attention between the puzzle box task and remaining vigilant. However, those exposed to human residents more often were more vigilant. We provide the first evidence of cognitive flexibility in urban yellow mongooses, which enables them to modify their behaviour to urban environments.

Genetic and context-specific effects on individual inhibitory control performance in the guppy (Poecilia reticulata)

Among-individual variation in cognitive traits, widely assumed to have evolved under adaptive processes, is increasingly being demonstrated across animal taxa. As variation among individuals is required for natural selection, characterizing individual differences and their heritability is important to understand how cognitive traits evolve. Here, we use a quantitative genetic study of wild-type guppies repeatedly exposed to a 'detour task' to test for genetic variance in the cognitive trait of inhibitory control. We also test for genotype-by-environment interactions (GxE) by testing related fish under alternative experimental treatments (transparent vs. semi-transparent barrier in the detour-task). We find among-individual variation in detour task performance, consistent with differences in inhibitory control. However, analysis of GxE reveals that heritable factors only contribute to performance variation in one treatment. This suggests that the adaptive evolutionary potential of inhibitory control (and/or other latent variables contributing to task performance) may be highly sensitive to environmental conditions. The presence of GxE also implies that the plastic response of detour task performance to treatment environment is genetically variable. Our results are consistent with a scenario where variation in individual inhibitory control stems from complex interactions between heritable and plastic components.

The Relationship between Cognition and Brain Size or Neuron Number

The comparative approach is a powerful way to explore the relationship between brain structure and cognitive function. Thus far, the field has been dominated by the assumption that a bigger brain somehow means better cognition. Correlations between differences in brain size or neuron number between species and differences in specific cognitive abilities exist, but these correlations are very noisy. Extreme differences exist between clades in the relationship between either brain size or neuron number and specific cognitive abilities. This means that correlations become weaker, not stronger, as the taxonomic diversity of sampled groups increases. Cognition is the outcome of neural networks. Here we propose that considering plausible neural network models will advance our understanding of the complex relationships between neuron number and different aspects of cognition. Computational modelling of networks suggests that adding pathways, or layers, or changing patterns of connectivity in a network can all have different specific consequences for cognition. Consequently, models of computational architecture can help us hypothesise how and why differences in neuron number might be related to differences in cognition. As methods in connectomics continue to improve and more structural information on animal brains becomes available, we are learning more about natural network structures in brains, and we can develop more biologically plausible models of cognitive architecture. Natural animal diversity then becomes a powerful resource to both test the assumptions of these models and explore hypotheses for how neural network structure and network size might delimit cognitive function.

Experimental expansion of relative telencephalon size improves the main executive function abilities in guppy

Executive functions are a set of cognitive control processes required for optimizing goal-directed behavior. Despite more than two centuries of research on executive functions, mostly in humans and nonhuman primates, there is still a knowledge gap in what constitutes the mechanistic basis of evolutionary variation in executive function abilities. Here, we show experimentally that size changes in a forebrain structure (i.e. telencephalon) underlie individual variation in executive function capacities in a fish. For this, we used male guppies (Poecilia reticulata) issued from artificial selection lines with substantial differences in telencephalon size relative to the rest of the brain. We tested fish from the up- and down-selected lines not only in three tasks for the main core executive functions: cognitive flexibility, inhibitory control, and working memory, but also in a basic conditioning test that does not require executive functions. Individuals with relatively larger telencephalons outperformed individuals with smaller telencephalons in all three executive function assays but not in the conditioning assay. Based on our findings, we propose that the telencephalon is the executive brain in teleost fish. Together, it suggests that selective enlargement of key brain structures with distinct functions, like the fish telencephalon, is a potent evolutionary pathway toward evolutionary enhancement of advanced cognitive abilities in vertebrates.

Transplant experiments demonstrate that larger brains are favoured in high-competition environments in Trinidadian killifish

The extent to which the evolution of a larger brain is adaptive remains controversial. Trinidadian killifish (Anablepsoides hartii) are found in sites that differ in predation intensity; fish that experience decreased predation and increased intraspecific competition exhibit larger brains. We evaluated the connection between brain size and fitness (survival and growth) when killifish are found in their native habitats and when fish are transplanted from sites with predators to high-competition sites that lack predators. Selection for a larger brain was absent within locally adapted populations. Conversely, there was a strong positive relationship between brain size and growth in transplanted but not resident fish in high-competition environments. We also observed significantly larger brain sizes in the transplanted fish that were recaptured at the end of the experiment versus those that were not. Our results provide experimental support that larger brains increase fitness and are favoured in high-competition environments.

Assessing cognitive flexibility in humans and rhesus macaques with visual motion and neutral distractors

Introduction

Cognitive flexibility is the ability of an individual to make behavioral adjustments in response to internal and/or external changes. While it has been reported in a wide variety of species, established paradigms to assess cognitive flexibility vary between humans and non-human animals, making systematic comparisons difficult to interpret.

Methods

We developed a computer-based paradigm to assess cognitive flexibility in humans and non-human primates. Our paradigm (1) uses a classical reversal learning structure in combination with a set-shifting approach (4 stimuli and 3 rules) to assess flexibility at various levels; (2) it employs the use of motion as one of three possible contextual rules; (3) it comprises elements that allow a foraging-like and random interaction, i.e., instances where the animals operate the task without following a strategy, to potentially minimize frustration in favor of a more positive engagement.

Results and Discussion

We show that motion can be used as a feature dimension (in addition to commonly used shape and color) to assess cognitive flexibility. Due to the way motion is processed in the primate brain, we argue that this dimension is an ideal candidate in situations where a non-binary rule set is needed and where participants might not be able to fully grasp other visual information of the stimulus (e.g., quantity in Wisconsin Card Sorting Test). All participants in our experiment flexibly shifted to and from motion-based rules as well as color- and shape-based rules, but did so with different proficiencies. Overall, we believe that with such approach it is possible to better characterize the evolution of cognitive flexibility in primates, as well as to develop more efficient tools to diagnose and treat various executive function deficits.

The effect of experimental hybridization on cognition and brain anatomy: Limited phenotypic variation and transgression in Poeciliidae

Hybridization can promote phenotypic variation and often produces trait combinations distinct from the parental species. This increase in available variation can lead to the manifestation of functional novelty when new phenotypes bear adaptive value under the environmental conditions in which they occur. Although the role of hybridization as a driver of variation and novelty in traits linked to fitness is well recognized, it remains largely unknown whether hybridization can fuel behavioral novelty by promoting phenotypic variation in brain morphology and/or cognitive traits. To address this question, we investigated the effect of hybridization on brain anatomy, learning ability, and cognitive flexibility in first- and second-generation hybrids of two closely related fish species (Poecilia reticulata and Poecilia wingei). Overall, we found that F1 and F2 hybrids showed intermediate brain morphology and cognitive traits compared to parental groups. Moreover, as phenotypic dispersion and transgression were low for both brain and cognitive traits, we suggest that hybridization is not a strong driver of brain anatomical and cognitive diversification in these Poeciliidae. To determine the generality of this conclusion, hybridization experiments with cognitive tests need to be repeated in other families.

Learning with lacertids: Studying the link between ecology and cognition within a comparative framework

Cognition is an essential tool for animals to deal with environmental challenges. Nonetheless, the ecological forces driving the evolution of cognition throughout the animal kingdom remain enigmatic. Large-scale comparative studies on multiple species and cognitive traits have been advanced as the best way to facilitate our understanding of cognitive evolution, but such studies are rare. Here, we tested 13 species of lacertid lizards (Reptilia: Lacertidae) using a battery of cognitive tests measuring inhibitory control, problem-solving, and spatial and reversal learning. Next, we tested the relationship between species' performance and (a) resource availability (temperature and precipitation), habitat complexity (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index), and habitat variability (seasonality) in their natural habitat and (b) their life history (size at hatching and maturity, clutch size, and frequency). Although species differed markedly in their cognitive abilities, such variation was mostly unrelated to their ecology and life history. Yet, species living in more variable environments exhibited lower behavioral flexibility, likely due to energetic constrains in such habitats. Our standardized protocols provide opportunities for collaborative research, allowing increased sample sizes and replication, essential for moving forward in the field of comparative cognition. Follow-up studies could include more detailed measures of habitat structure and look at other potential selective drivers such as predation.

Fish can infer relations between colour cues in a non-social learning task

Transitive inference (TI) describes the ability to infer relationships between stimuli that have never been seen together before. Social cichlids can use TI in a social setting where observers assess dominance status after witnessing contests between different dyads of conspecifics. If cognitive processes are domain-general, animals should use abilities evolved in a social context also in a non-social context. Therefore, if TI is domain-general in fish, social fish should also be able to use TI in non-social tasks. Here we tested whether the cooperatively breeding cichlid Neolamprologus pulcher can infer transitive relationships between artificial stimuli in a non-social context. We used an associative learning paradigm where the fish received a food reward when correctly solving a colour discrimination task. Eleven of 12 subjects chose the predicted outcome for TI in the first test trial and five subjects performed with 100% accuracy in six successive test trials. We found no evidence that the fish solved the TI task by value transfer. Our findings show that fish also use TI in non-social tasks with artificial stimuli, thus generalizing past results reported in a social context and hinting toward a domain-general cognitive mechanism.

Evolutionary divergence in phenotypic plasticity shapes brain size variation between coexisting sunfish ecotypes

Mechanisms that generate brain size variation and the consequences of such variation on ecological performance are poorly understood in most natural animal populations. We use a reciprocal-transplant common garden experiment and foraging performance trials to test for brain size plasticity and the functional consequences of brain size variation in Pumpkinseed sunfish (Lepomis gibbosus) ecotypes that have diverged between nearshore littoral and offshore pelagic lake habitats. Different age-classes of wild-caught juveniles from both habitats were exposed for 6 months to treatments that mimicked littoral and pelagic foraging. Plastic responses in oral jaw size suggested that treatments mimicked natural habitat-specific foraging conditions. Plastic brain size responses to foraging manipulations differed between ecotypes, as only pelagic sourced fish showed brain size plasticity. Only pelagic juveniles under 1 year-old expressed this plastic response, suggesting that plastic brain size responses decline with age and so may be irreversible. Finally, larger brain size was associated with enhanced foraging performance on live benthic but not pelagic prey, providing the first experimental evidence of a relationship between brain size and prey-specific foraging performance in fishes. The recent post-glacial origin of these ecotypes suggests that brain size plasticity can rapidly evolve and diverge in fish under contrasting ecological conditions.

Divergence in brain size and brain region volumes across wild guppy populations

Complex evolutionary dynamics have produced extensive variation in brain anatomy in the animal world. In guppies, Poecilia reticulata, brain size and anatomy have been extensively studied in the laboratory contributing to our understanding of brain evolution and the cognitive advantages that arise with brain anatomical variation. However, it is unclear whether these laboratory results can be translated to natural populations. Here, we study brain neuroanatomy and its relationship with sexual traits across 18 wild guppy populations in diverse environments. We found extensive variation in female and male relative brain size and brain region volumes across populations in different environment types and with varying degrees of predation risk. In contrast with laboratory studies, we found differences in allometric scaling of brain regions, leading to variation in brain region proportions across populations. Finally, we found an association between sexual traits, mainly the area of black patches and tail length, and brain size. Our results suggest differences in ecological conditions and sexual traits are associated with differences in brain size and brain regions volumes in the wild, as well as sexual dimorphisms in the brain's neuroanatomy.

Cognition contra camouflage: How the brain mediates predator-driven crypsis evolution

While crypsis is a prominent antipredator adaptation, the role of the brain in predator-driven evolution remains controversial. Resolving this controversy requires contextualizing the brain with established antipredator traits and predation pressure. We hypothesize that the reduced predation risk through crypsis relaxes predation-driven selection on the brain and provide comparative evidence across 102 Chinese frog species for our hypothesis. Specifically, our phylogenetic path analysis reveals an indirect relationship between predation risk and crypsis that is mediated by brain size. This result suggests that at a low predation risk, frogs can afford to be conspicuous and use their large brain for cognitive predator evasion. This strategy may become less efficient or energetically costlier under higher predation pressure, favoring smaller brains and instead increasing crypsis.

Brain morphology correlates of learning and cognitive flexibility in a fish species (Poecilia reticulata)

Determining how variation in brain morphology affects cognitive abilities is important to understand inter-individual variation in cognition and, ultimately, cognitive evolution. Yet, despite many decades of research in this area, there is surprisingly little experimental data available from assays that quantify cognitive abilities and brain morphology in the same individuals. Here, we tested female guppies (Poecilia reticulata) in two tasks, colour discrimination and reversal learning, to evaluate their learning abilities and cognitive flexibility. We then estimated the size of five brain regions (telencephalon, optic tectum, hypothalamus, cerebellum and dorsal medulla), in addition to relative brain size. We found that optic tectum relative size, in relation to the rest of the brain, correlated positively with discrimination learning performance, while relative telencephalon size correlated positively with reversal learning performance. The other brain measures were not associated with performance in either task. By evaluating how fast learning occurs and how fast an animal adjusts its learning rules to changing conditions, we find support for that different brain regions have distinct functional correlations at the individual level. Importantly, telencephalon size emerges as an important neural correlate of higher executive functions such as cognitive flexibility. This is rare evidence supporting the theory that more neural tissue in key brain regions confers cognitive benefits.

Stress axis programming generates long-term effects on cognitive abilities in a cooperative breeder

The ability to flexibly adjust behaviour to social and non-social challenges is important for successfully navigating variable environments. Social competence, i.e. adaptive behavioural flexibility in the social domain, allows individuals to optimize their expression of social behaviour. Behavioural flexibility outside the social domain aids in coping with ecological challenges. However, it is unknown if social and non-social behavioural flexibility share common underlying cognitive mechanisms. Support for such shared mechanism would be provided if the same neural mechanisms in the brain affected social and non-social behavioural flexibility similarly. We used individuals of the cooperatively breeding fish Neolamprologus pulcher that had undergone early-life programming of the hypothalamic-pituitary-interrenal axis by exposure to (i) cortisol, (ii) the glucocorticoid receptor antagonist mifepristone, or (iii) control treatments, and where effects of stress-axis programming on social flexibility occurred. One year after the treatments, adults learned a colour discrimination task and subsequently, a reversal-learning task testing for behavioural flexibility. Early-life mifepristone treatment marginally enhanced learning performance, whereas cortisol treatment significantly reduced behavioural flexibility. Thus, early-life cortisol treatment reduced both social and non-social behavioural flexibility, suggesting a shared cognitive basis of behavioural flexibility. Further our findings imply that early-life stress programming affects the ability of organisms to flexibly cope with environmental stressors.

Color Discrimination Provides Insight into the Relationship between Personality Cognition and Brain Morphology in the Western Mosquitofish (Gambusia affinis)

Recent studies on the differences in cognitive ability between individuals focused on two aspects: one is whether the individual differences in cognitive ability are related to brain size, the other is whether they pertain to certain personality traits. To explore these two hypotheses, we tested the personality traits, cognitive abilities, and brain volumes of western mosquitofish (Gambusia affinis). First, a color preference test was conducted to select two unbiased colors for G. affinis for subsequent cognitive tests. The results showed that G. affinis had a great preference for red and green to yellow and blue; therefore, the red-green combination was selected for the study of cognitive abilities. Then, we explored the relationship among cognition, personality, and brain morphology through cognitive abilities tests, personality traits, and brain volume measurements. We found that there was a trade-off among cognition, personality, and brain morphology. For example, more active individuals found food faster, but had also poor memory; Those individuals with larger corpus cerebelli were bolder while they were less likely to find food; The individuals that found food faster were more active and had a smaller inferior lobe. The color preference test provides a reliable way for selecting unbiased colors for behavioral studies in G. affinis. Meanwhile, our study indicates that there exists a balance mechanism among cognition, personality, and brain morphology.

Variation in brain volume in nine populations and three taxa of the African striped mouse Rhabdomys

Brain size can vary between populations in different environments because of different selection pressures on behaviours, such as learning and memory, related to spatial, social and environmental differences. We investigated the variation in total and broad-scale regional brain size in the murid rodent genus Rhabdomys from different environments. We assessed taxon-, population- and sex-level differences in total and regional brain volume in three populations each of three taxa (arid-occurring R. pumilio and mesic-occurring R. dilectus chakae and R. d. dilectus) originating across southern Africa. We μCT-scanned crania obtained from museums in South Africa and used digital software to create endocasts and extract total endocranium and regional volumes: olfactory bulb, anterior cerebrum, posterior cerebrum, cerebellum volume, and petrosal volume. Total endocranial volume scaled with basal skull length and all region volumes scaled with total endocranial volume. We found taxon-, and population-level differences in total endocranial volume. Relative anterior and posterior cerebrum volume did not differ significantly between taxa or populations, but relative cerebellum volume was larger in arid populations than mesic populations. Relative olfactory bulb volume was larger in mesic R. dilectus than in the R. pumilio, but petrosal lobule volume was larger in R. pumilio populations than in R. dilectus. Males had larger total endocranial volumes than females. Drivers of larger total endocranial volumes in R. pumilio are not immediately clear from our results. Environmental seasonality of food availability, cognitive buffering and locomotion may all correlate with total endocranial volume size, whereas the influence of sociality cannot be excluded. The environment and degree of semi-arboreality are likely driving variation in cerebellum, olfactory bulb and petrosal lobule volumes. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Artificial mosaic brain evolution of relative telencephalon size improves inhibitory control abilities in the guppy (Poecilia reticulata)

Mosaic brain evolution, the change in the size of separate brain regions in response to selection on cognitive performance, is an important idea in the field of cognitive evolution. However, untill now, most of the data on how separate brain regions respond to selection and their cognitive consequences stem from comparative studies. To experimentally investigate the influence of mosaic brain evolution on cognitive ability, we used male guppies artificially selected for large and small telencephalons relative to the rest of the brain. Here, we tested an important aspect of executive cognitive ability using a detour task. We found that males with larger telencephalons outperformed males with smaller telencephalons. Fish with larger telencephalons showed faster improvement in performance during detour training and were more successful in reaching the food reward without touching the transparent barrier (i.e., through correct detouring) during the test phase. Together, our findings provide the first experimental evidence showing that evolutionary enlargement of relative telencephalon size confers cognitive benefits, supporting an important role for mosaic brain evolution during cognitive evolution.

Rapid mosaic brain evolution under artificial selection for relative telencephalon size in the guppy (Poecilia reticulata)

The mosaic brain evolution hypothesis, stating that brain regions can evolve relatively independently during cognitive evolution, is an important idea to understand how brains evolve with potential implications even for human brain evolution. Here, we provide the first experimental evidence for this hypothesis through an artificial selection experiment in the guppy (Poecilia reticulata). After four generations of selection on relative telencephalon volume (relative to brain size), we found substantial changes in telencephalon size but no changes in other regions. Further comparisons revealed that up-selected lines had larger telencephalon, while down-selected lines had smaller telencephalon than wild Trinidadian populations. Our results support that independent evolutionary changes in specific brain regions through mosaic brain evolution can be important facilitators of cognitive evolution.

Does brain size affect mate choice? An experimental examination in pygmy halfbeaks

Choosing a mate is one of the most important decisions in an animal's lifetime. Female mate choice is often guided by the presence or intensity of male sexual ornaments, which must be integrated and compared among potential mates. Individuals with greater cognitive abilities may be better at evaluating and comparing sexual ornaments, even when the difference in ornaments is small. While brain size is often used as a proxy for cognitive ability, its effect on mate choice has rarely been investigated. Here, we investigate the effect of brain size on mate preferences in the pygmy halfbeak Dermogenys collettei, a small freshwater fish that forms mixed-sex shoals where mating takes place. Pygmy halfbeaks are ideal models as their semi-transparent heads allow for external brain measurements. After validating the use of external measurements as a proxy for internal brain size, we presented females with large or small brains (relative to body length) with two males that had either a large or small difference in sexual ornamentation (measured by the total area of red coloration). Unexpectedly, neither total relative brain size nor relative telencephalon size affected any measured aspect of mate preference. However, the difference in male sexual ornamentation did affect preference, with females preferring males with a smaller area of red coloration when the difference in ornaments was large. This study highlights the complexities of mate choice and the importance of considering a range of stimuli when examining mate preferences.

Seasonal variation of behavior and brain size in a freshwater fish

Teleost fishes occupy a range of ecosystem, and habitat types subject to large seasonal fluctuations. Temperate fishes, in particular, survive large seasonal shifts in temperature, light availability, and access to certain habitats. Mobile species such as lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush) can behaviorally respond to seasonal variation by shifting their habitat deeper and further offshore in response to warmer surface water temperatures during the summer. During cooler seasons, the use of more structurally complex nearshore zones by lake trout could increase cognitive demands and potentially result in a larger relative brain size during those periods. Yet, there is limited understanding of how such behavioral responses to a seasonally shifting environment might shape, or be shaped by, the nervous system.Here, we quantified variation in relative brain size and the size of five externally visible brain regions in lake trout, across six consecutive seasons in two different lakes. Acoustic telemetry data from one of our study lakes were collected during the study period from a different subset of individuals and used to infer relationships between brain size and seasonal behaviors (habitat use and movement rate).Our results indicated that lake trout relative brain size was larger in the fall and winter compared with the spring and summer in both lakes. Larger brains coincided with increased use of nearshore habitats and increased horizontal movement rates in the fall and winter based on acoustic telemetry. The telencephalon followed the same pattern as whole brain size, while the other brain regions (cerebellum, optic tectum, olfactory bulbs, and hypothalamus) were only smaller in the spring.These findings provide evidence that flexibility in brain size could underpin shifts in behavior, which could potentially subserve functions associated with differential habitat use during cold and warm seasons and allow fish to succeed in seasonally variable environments.

Nesting ecology does not explain slow-fast cognitive differences among honeybee species

Slow-fast behavioral and life history differences have been tied to slow-fast variation in cognition that is part of the general speed-accuracy tradeoff. While there is growing evidence for such cognitive variation and its association with behavior and life history at the intraspecific level, it is unknown if a similar relationship extends to the interspecific level. Since interspecific differences in cognition have been shown to be a function of ecology and life history, such differences should be reflected in multiple traits that comprise the slow-fast cognitive axis. In this study, by measuring multiple cognitive traits in individuals, we tested for differences in the cognitive phenotype among four honeybee species, which differ in their behavior and life history in a manner that is associated with differences in their nesting ecology. Our results indicate that a set of cognitive traits consistently covary within each species, resulting in slow and fast cognitive phenotypes that largely meet the predictions of the speed-accuracy tradeoff. We also find that the four species group into two distinct clusters on a slow-fast cognitive axis, although their positions do not align with the known differences in their life history and nesting ecology. We instead find that cognitive differences among the four species are correlated with their brain size. We discuss the possible implications of these results for the role of ecology on slow-fast cognitive differences and the evolution of cognition.

Neural substrates involved in the cognitive information processing in teleost fish

Over the last few decades, it has been shown that fish, comprising the largest group of vertebrates and in many respects one of the least well studied, possess many cognitive abilities comparable to those of birds and mammals. Despite a plethora of behavioural studies assessing cognition abilities and an abundance of neuroanatomical studies, only few studies have aimed to or in fact identified the neural substrates involved in the processing of cognitive information. In this review, an overview of the currently available studies addressing the joint research topics of cognitive behaviour and neuroscience in teleosts (and elasmobranchs wherever possible) is provided, primarily focusing on two fundamentally different but complementary approaches, i.e. ablation studies and Immediate Early Gene (IEG) analyses. More recently, the latter technique has become one of the most promising methods to visualize neuronal populations activated in specific brain areas, both during a variety of cognitive as well as non-cognition-related tasks. While IEG studies may be more elegant and potentially easier to conduct, only lesion studies can help researchers find out what information animals can learn or recall prior to and following ablation of a particular brain area.

Brain size variation along altitudinal gradients in the Asiatic Toad (Bufo gargarizans)

Size changes in brain and brain regions along altitudinal gradients provide insight into the trade-off between energetic expenditure and cognitive capacity. We investigated the brain size variations of the Asiatic Toad (Bufo gargarizans) across altitudes from 700 m to 3,200 m. A total of 325 individuals from 11 sites and two transects were sampled. To reduce confounding factors, all sampling sites within each transect were within a maximum distance of 85 km and an altitudinal difference close to 2,000 m. Brains were dissected, and five regions were both measured directly and with 3D CT scan. There is a significant negative correlation between the relative whole-brain volume (to snout-vent length) and altitude. Furthermore, the relative volumes (to whole-brain volume) of optic tectum and cerebellum also decrease along the altitudinal gradients, while the telencephalon increases its relative volume along the gradients. Therefore, our results are mostly consistent with the expensive brain hypothesis and the functional constraint hypothesis. We suggest that most current hypotheses are not mutually exclusive and data supporting one hypothesis are often partially consistent with others. More studies on mechanisms are needed to explain the brain size evolution in natural populations.

Interspecific and intraspecific comparisons reveal the importance of evolutionary context in sunfish brain form divergence

Habitats can select for specialized phenotypic characteristics in animals. However, the consistency of evolutionary responses to particular environmental conditions remains difficult to predict. One trait of great ecological importance is brain form, which is expected to vary between habitats that differ in their cognitive requirements. Here, we compared divergence in brain form and oral jaw size across a common littoral-pelagic ecological axis in two sunfishes at both the intraspecific and interspecific levels. Brain form differed between habitats at every level of comparison; however, divergence was inconsistent, despite consistent differences in oral jaw size. Pumpkinseed and bluegill species differed in cerebellum, optic tectum and olfactory bulb size. These differences are consistent with a historical ecological divergence because they did not manifest between littoral and pelagic ecotypes within either species, suggesting constraints on changes to these regions over short evolutionary time scales. There were also differences in brain form between conspecific ecotypes, but they were inconsistent between species. Littoral pumpkinseed had larger brains than their pelagic counterpart, and littoral bluegill had smaller telencephalons than their pelagic counterpart. Inconsistent brain form divergence between conspecific ecotypes of pumpkinseed and bluegill sharing a common littoral-pelagic habitat axis suggests that contemporary ecological conditions and historic evolutionary context interact to influence evolutionary changes in brain form in fishes.

Coordinated evolution of brain size, structure, and eye size in Trinidadian killifish

Brain size, brain architecture, and eye size vary extensively in vertebrates. However, the extent to which the evolution of these components is intricately connected remains unclear. Trinidadian killifish, Anablepsoides hartii, are found in sites that differ in the presence and absence of large predatory fish. Decreased rates of predation are associated with evolutionary shifts in brain size; males from sites without predators have evolved a relatively larger brain and eye size than males from sites with predators. Here, we evaluated the extent to which the evolution of brain size, brain structure, and eye size covary in male killifish. We utilized wild-caught and common garden-reared specimens to determine whether specific components of the brain have evolved in response to differences in predation and to determine if there is covariation between the evolution of brain size, brain structure, and eye size. We observed consistent shifts in brain architecture in second generation common garden reared, but not wild caught preserved fish. Male killifish from sites that lack predators exhibited a significantly larger telencephalon, optic tectum, cerebellum, and dorsal medulla when compared with fish from sites with predators. We also found positive connections between the evolution of brain structure and eye size but not between overall brain size and eye size. These results provide evidence for evolutionary covariation between the components of the brain and eye size. Such results suggest that selection, directly or indirectly, acts upon specific regions of the brain, rather than overall brain size, to enhance visual capabilities.

Intraspecific variation in inhibitory motor control in guppies, Poecilia reticulata

Inhibitory control (IC) is the ability to overcome impulsive or prepotent but ineffective responses in favour of more appropriate behaviours. The ability to inhibit internal predispositions or external temptations is vital in coping with a complex and variable world. Traditionally viewed as cognitively demanding and a main component of executive functioning and self-control, IC was historically examined in only a few species of birds and mammals but recently a number of studies has shown that a much wider range of taxa rely on IC. Furthermore, there is growing evidence that inhibitory abilities may vary within species at the population and individual levels owing to genetic and environmental factors. Here we use a detour-reaching task, a standard paradigm to measure motor inhibition in nonhuman animals, to quantify patterns of interindividual variation in IC in wild-descendant female guppies, Poecilia reticulata. We found that female guppies displayed inhibitory performances that were, on average, half as successful as the performances reported previously for other strains of guppies tested in similar experimental conditions. Moreover, we showed consistent individual variation in the ability to inhibit inappropriate behaviours. Our results contribute to the understanding of the evolution of fish cognition and suggest that IC may show considerable variation among populations within a species. Such variation in IC abilities might contribute to individual differences in other cognitive functions such as spatial learning, quantity discrimination or reversal learning.

The link between relative brain size and cognitive ageing in female guppies (Poecilia reticulata) artificially selected for variation in brain size

Cognitive ageing is the general process when certain mental skills gradually deteriorate with age. Across species, there is a pattern of a slower brain structure degradation rate in large-brained species. Hence, having a larger brain might buffer the impact of cognitive ageing and positively affect survival at older age. However, few studies have investigated the link between relative brain size and cognitive ageing at the intraspecific level. In particular, experimental data on how brain size affects brain function also into higher age is largely missing. We used 288 female guppies (Poecilia reticulata), artificially selected for large and small relative brain size, to investigate variation in colour discrimination and behavioural flexibility, at 4-6, 12 and 24 months of age. These ages are particularly interesting since they cover the life span from sexual maturation until maximal life length under natural conditions. We found no evidence for a slower cognitive ageing rate in large-brained females in neither initial colour discrimination nor reversal learning. Behavioural flexibility was predicted by large relative brain size in the youngest group, but the effect of brain size disappeared with increasing age. This result suggests that cognitive ageing rate is faster in large-brained female guppies, potentially due to the faster ageing and shorter lifespan in the large-brained selection lines. It also means that cognition levels align across different brain sizes with older age. We conclude that there are cognitive consequences of ageing that vary with relative brain size in advanced learning abilities, whereas fundamental aspects of learning can be maintained throughout the ecologically relevant life span.

Brain morphology predicts social intelligence in wild cleaner fish

It is generally agreed that variation in social and/or environmental complexity yields variation in selective pressures on brain anatomy, where more complex brains should yield increased intelligence. While these insights are based on many evolutionary studies, it remains unclear how ecology impacts brain plasticity and subsequently cognitive performance within a species. Here, we show that in wild cleaner fish (Labroides dimidiatus), forebrain size of high-performing individuals tested in an ephemeral reward task covaried positively with cleaner density, while cerebellum size covaried negatively with cleaner density. This unexpected relationship may be explained if we consider that performance in this task reflects the decision rules that individuals use in nature rather than learning abilities: cleaners with relatively larger forebrains used decision-rules that appeared to be locally optimal. Thus, social competence seems to be a suitable proxy of intelligence to understand individual differences under natural conditions.

Artificial selection for schooling behaviour and its effects on associative learning abilities

The evolution of collective behaviour has been proposed to have important effects on individual cognitive abilities. Yet, in what way they are related remains enigmatic. In this context, the 'distributed cognition' hypothesis suggests that reliance on other group members relaxes selection for individual cognitive abilities. Here, we tested how cognitive processes respond to evolutionary changes in collective motion using replicate lines of guppies (Poecilia reticulata) artificially selected for the degree of schooling behaviour (group polarization) with >15% difference in schooling propensity. We assessed associative learning in females of these selection lines in a series of cognitive assays: colour associative learning, reversal learning, social associative learning, and individual and collective spatial associative learning. We found that control females were faster than polarization-selected females at fulfilling a learning criterion only in the colour associative learning assay, but they were also less likely to reach a learning criterion in the individual spatial associative learning assay. Hence, although testing several cognitive domains, we found weak support for the distributed cognition hypothesis. We propose that any cognitive implications of selection for collective behaviour lie outside of the cognitive abilities included in food-motivated associative learning for visual and spatial cues.

Variation in reversal learning by three generalist mesocarnivores

Urbanization imposes novel challenges for wildlife, but also provides new opportunities for exploitation. Generalist species are commonly found in urban habitats, but the cognitive mechanisms facilitating their successful behavioral adaptations and exploitations are largely under-investigated. Cognitive flexibility is thought to enable generalists to be more plastic in their behavior, thereby increasing their adaptability to a variety of environments, including urban habitats. Yet direct measures of cognitive flexibility across urban wildlife are lacking. We used a classic reversal-learning paradigm to investigate the cognitive flexibility of three generalist mesocarnivores commonly found in urban habitats: striped skunks (Mephitis mephitis), raccoons (Procyon lotor), and coyotes (Canis latrans). We developed an automated device and testing protocol that allowed us to administer tests of reversal learning in captivity without extensive training or experimenter involvement. Although most subjects were able to rapidly form and reverse learned associations, we found moderate variation in performance and behavior during trials. Most notably, we observed heightened neophobia and a lack of habituation expressed by coyotes. We discuss the implications of such differences among generalists with regard to urban adaptation and we identify goals for future research. This study is an important step in investigating the relationships between cognition, generalism, and urban adaptation.

Context-dependent trait covariances: how plasticity shapes behavioral syndromes

The study of behavioral syndromes aims to understand among-individual correlations of behavior, yielding insights into the ecological factors and proximate constraints that shape behavior. In parallel, interest has been growing in behavioral plasticity, with results commonly showing that animals vary in their behavioral response to environmental change. These two phenomena are inextricably linked—behavioral syndromes describe cross-trait or cross-context correlations, while variation in behavioral plasticity describes variation in response to changing context. However, they are often discussed separately, with plasticity analyses typically considering a single trait (univariate) across environments, while behavioral trait correlations are studied as multiple traits (multivariate) under one environmental context. Here, we argue that such separation represents a missed opportunity to integrate these concepts. Through observations of multiple traits while manipulating environmental conditions, we can quantify how the environment shapes behavioral correlations, thus quantifying how phenotypes are differentially constrained or integrated under different environmental conditions. Two analytical options exist which enable us to evaluate the context dependence of behavioral syndromes—multivariate reaction norms and character state models. These models are largely two sides of the same coin, but through careful interpretation we can use either to shift our focus to test how the contextual environment shapes trait covariances.

Interactions with conspecific outsiders as drivers of cognitive evolution

The social intelligence hypothesis (SIH) posits that within-group interactions drive cognitive evolution, but it has received equivocal support. We argue the SIH overlooks a major component of social life: interactions with conspecific outsiders. Competition for vital resources means conspecific outsiders present myriad threats and opportunities in all animal taxa across the social spectrum (from individuals to groups). We detail cognitive challenges generated by conspecific outsiders, arguing these select for ‘Napoleonic’ intelligence; explain potential influences on the SIH; and highlight important considerations when empirically testing these ideas. Including interactions with conspecific outsiders may substantially improve our understanding of cognitive evolution.

The social intelligence hypothesis predicts that social organisms tend to be more intelligent because within-group interactions drive cognitive evolution. Here, authors propose that conspecific outsiders can be just as important in selecting for sophisticated cognitive adaptations.

Learning performance is influenced by the social environment in cichlid fishes

It has been hypothesised that some specialised cognitive abilities may have evolved because of the challenges of living in complex social environments. Therefore, more-social species might be able to learn faster than less-social species. The aim of this study was to develop a learning framework to test how more- and less-social Lamprologine cichlid fishes perform across associative learning tasks. These cichlids are a group of closely related species with similar ecologies and life histories but varying degrees of sociality, making them an ideal group for comparative learning studies. We found that three nongrouping cichlids (Telmatochromis temporalis, Lamprologus meleagris, and Neolamprologus tretocephalus) outperformed three closely related highly social, cooperatively breeding cichlids (N. pulcher, N. multifasciatus, and Julidochromis dickfeldi) on an associative learning task based on food rewards. However, we hypothesised that these differences may be caused by the social environment during testing and might not reflect true cognitive differences. Indeed, when we drilled down and compared just two species across four different social conditions, we found that the social environment during learning trials affected the performance of the highly social N. pulcher and the less-social T. temporalis differently. We then performed further experiments with both N. pulcher and T. temporalis under more natural social settings. Under these more natural social conditions, we found that N. pulcher learned to differentiate accessible and inaccessible shelters faster than T. temporalis. These findings highlight the potential for expanding comparative experiments investigating the relationship between sociality and cognition and emphasise the crucial role social environment plays in learning outcomes. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Brain size does not predict learning strategies in a serial reversal learning test

Reversal learning assays are commonly used across a wide range of taxa to investigate associative learning and behavioural flexibility. In serial reversal learning, the reward contingency in a binary discrimination is reversed multiple times. Performance during serial reversal learning varies greatly at the interspecific level, as some animals adopt a rule-based strategy that enables them to switch quickly between reward contingencies. A larger relative brain size, generating enhanced learning ability and increased behavioural flexibility, has been proposed to be an important factor underlying this variation. Here, we experimentally tested this hypothesis at the intraspecific level. We used guppies (Poecilia reticulata) artificially selected for small and large relative brain size, with matching differences in neuron number, in a serial reversal learning assay. We tested 96 individuals over 10 serial reversals and found that learning performance and memory were predicted by brain size, whereas differences in efficient learning strategies were not. We conclude that variation in brain size and neuron number is important for variation in learning performance and memory, but these differences are not great enough to cause the larger differences in efficient learning strategies observed at higher taxonomic levels.

Selection for reduced fear in red junglefowl changes brain composition and affects fear memory

Brain size reduction is a common trait in domesticated species when compared to wild conspecifics. This reduction can happen through changes in individual brain regions as a response to selection on specific behaviours. We selected red junglefowl for 10 generations for diverging levels of fear towards humans and measured brain size and composition as well as habituation learning and conditioned place preference learning in young chicks. Brain size relative to body size as well as brainstem region size relative to whole brain size were significantly smaller in chicks selected for low fear of humans compared to chicks selected for high fear of humans. However, when including allometric effects in the model, these differences disappear but a tendency towards larger cerebra in low-fear chickens remains. Low-fear line chicks habituated more effectively to a fearful stimulus with prior experience of that same stimulus, whereas high-fear line chicks with previous experience of the stimulus had a response similar to naive chicks. The phenotypical changes are in line with previously described effects of domestication.

Relative Brain Size Is Predicted by the Intensity of Intrasexual Competition in Frogs

Competition over mates is a powerful force shaping trait evolution. For instance, better cognitive abilities may be beneficial in male-male competition and thus be selected for by intrasexual selection. Alternatively, investment in physical attributes favoring male performance in competition for mates may lower the resources available for brain development, and more intense male mate competition would coincide with smaller brains. To date, only indirect evidence for such relationships exists, and most studies are heavily biased toward primates and other homoeothermic vertebrates. We tested the association between male brain size (relative to body size) and male-male competition across N=30 species of Chinese anurans. Three indicators of the intensity of male mate competition-operational sex ratio (OSR), spawning-site density, and male forelimb muscle mass-were positively associated with relative brain size, whereas the absolute spawning group size was not. The relationship with the OSR and male forelimb muscle mass was stronger for the male than for the female brains. Taken together, our findings suggest that the increased cognitive abilities of larger brains are beneficial in male-male competition. This study adds taxonomic breadth to the mounting evidence for a prominent role of sexual selection in vertebrate brain evolution.

Is foraging innovation lost following colonization of a less variable environment? A case study in surface- vs. cave-dwelling Asellus aquaticus

Behavioral innovation is a key process for successful colonization of new habitat types. However, it is costly due to the necessary cognitive and neural demands and typically connected to ecological generalism. Therefore, loss of behavioral innovativeness is predicted following colonization of new, simple, and invariable environments. We tested this prediction by studying foraging innovativeness in the freshwater isopod Asellus aquaticus. We sampled its populations along the route of colonizing a thermokarstic water-filled cave (simple, stable habitat with only bacterial mats as food) from surface habitats (variable environment, wide variety of food). The studied cave population separated from the surface populations at least 60,000 years ago. Animals were tested both with familiar and novel food types (cave food: bacterial mats; surface food: decaying leaves). Irrespective of food type, cave individuals were more likely to feed than surface individuals. Further, animals from all populations fed longer on leaves than on bacteria, even though leaves were novel for the cave animals. Our results support that cave A. aquaticus did not lose the ability to use the ancestral (surface) food type after adapting to a simple, stable, and highly specialized habitat.

Personality traits covary with individual differences in inhibitory abilities in 2 species of fish

In a number of animal species, individuals differ in their ability to solve cognitive tasks. However, the mechanisms underlying this variability remain unclear. It has been proposed that individual differences in cognition may be related to individual differences in behavior (i.e., personality); a hypothesis that has received mixed support. In this study, we investigated whether personality correlates with the cognitive ability that allows inhibiting behavior in 2 teleost fish species, the zebrafish Danio rerio and the guppy Poecilia reticulata. In both species, individuals that were bolder in a standard personality assay, the open-field test, showed greater inhibitory abilities in the tube task, which required them to inhibit foraging behavior toward live prey sealed into a transparent tube. This finding reveals a relationship between boldness and inhibitory abilities in fish and lends support to the hypothesis of a link between personality and cognition. Moreover, this study suggests that species separated by a relatively large phylogenetic distance may show the same link between personality and cognition, when tested on the same tasks.