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Lin FC, Lin SM, Godfrey SS. Hidden social complexity behind vocal and acoustic communication in non-avian reptiles. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2024; 379:20230200. [PMID: 38768204 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2023.0200] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/19/2023] [Accepted: 01/08/2024] [Indexed: 05/22/2024] Open
Abstract
Social interactions are inevitable in the lives of most animals, since most essential behaviours require interaction with conspecifics, such as mating and competing for resources. Non-avian reptiles are typically viewed as solitary animals that predominantly use their vision and olfaction to communicate with conspecifics. Nevertheless, in recent years, evidence is mounting that some reptiles can produce sounds and have the potential for acoustic communication. Reptiles that can produce sound have an additional communicative channel (in addition to visual/olfactory channels), which could suggest they have a higher communicative complexity, the evolution of which is assumed to be driven by the need of social interactions. Thus, acoustic reptiles may provide an opportunity to unveil the true social complexity of reptiles that are usually thought of as solitary. This review aims to reveal the hidden social interactions behind the use of sounds in non-avian reptiles. Our review suggests that the potential of vocal and acoustic communication and the complexity of social interactions may be underestimated in non-avian reptiles, and that acoustic reptiles may provide a great opportunity to uncover the coevolution between sociality and communication in non-avian reptiles. This article is part of the theme issue 'The power of sound: unravelling how acoustic communication shapes group dynamics'.
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Affiliation(s)
- Feng-Chun Lin
- Department of Zoology, University of Otago , Dunedin, New Zealand
| | - Si-Min Lin
- School of Life Science, National Taiwan Normal University , Taipei, Taiwan
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Lin FC, Shaner PJL, Hsieh MY, Whiting MJ, Lin SM. Trained quantity discrimination in invasive red-eared slider and a comparison with the native stripe-necked turtle. Anim Cogn 2024; 27:26. [PMID: 38530499 PMCID: PMC10965720 DOI: 10.1007/s10071-024-01850-0] [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: 08/23/2023] [Revised: 10/19/2023] [Accepted: 10/26/2023] [Indexed: 03/28/2024]
Abstract
Little is known about the behavioral and cognitive traits that best predict invasion success. Evidence is mounting that cognitive performance correlates with survival and fecundity, two pivotal factors for the successful establishment of invasive populations. We assessed the quantity discrimination ability of the globally invasive red-eared slider (Trachemys scripta elegans). We further compared it to that of the native stripe-necked turtle (Mauremys sinensis), which has been previously evaluated for its superior quantity discrimination ability. Specifically, our experimental designs aimed to quantify the learning ability as numerosity pairs increased in difficulty (termed fixed numerosity tests), and the immediate response when turtles were presented with varied challenges concurrently in the same tests (termed mixed numerosity tests). Our findings reaffirm the remarkable ability of freshwater turtles to discern numerical differences as close as 9 vs 10 (ratio = 0.9), which was comparable to the stripe-necked turtle's performance. However, the red-eared slider exhibited a moderate decrease in performance in high ratio tests, indicating a potentially enhanced cognitive capacity to adapt to novel challenges. Our experimental design is repeatable and is adaptable to a range of freshwater turtles. These findings emphasize the potential importance of cognitive research to the underlying mechanisms of successful species invasions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Feng-Chun Lin
- Department of Zoology, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand
- School of Life Science, National Taiwan Normal University, No. 88, Tingzhou Road Section 4, Taipei, 116, Taiwan
| | - Pei-Jen Lee Shaner
- School of Life Science, National Taiwan Normal University, No. 88, Tingzhou Road Section 4, Taipei, 116, Taiwan
- Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Studies, National Dong Hwa University, Hualien, Taiwan
| | | | - Martin J Whiting
- School of Natural Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW, Australia
| | - Si-Min Lin
- School of Life Science, National Taiwan Normal University, No. 88, Tingzhou Road Section 4, Taipei, 116, Taiwan.
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Tomonaga M, Haraguchi D, Wilkinson A. Slowly walking down to the more food: relative quantity discrimination in African spurred tortoises (Centrochelys sulcata). Anim Cogn 2023; 26:1675-1683. [PMID: 37477740 PMCID: PMC10442272 DOI: 10.1007/s10071-023-01812-y] [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: 03/24/2023] [Revised: 06/30/2023] [Accepted: 07/11/2023] [Indexed: 07/22/2023]
Abstract
Quantity discrimination, is thought to be highly adaptive as it allows an organism to select greater amounts of food or larger social groups. In contrast to mammals, the processes underlying this ability are not as well understood in reptiles. This study examined the effects of ratio and number size on relative quantity discrimination in African spurred tortoises (Centrochelys sulcata). To assess these effects, tortoises were presented with trays containing favored food pieces in all possible number combinations between 1 and 7. The tortoises had to approach the tray they perceived as having the larger quantity. If correct, they received one piece of food as reinforcement. The results revealed that relative quantity discrimination was influenced by the ratio between the numbers of pieces, with performance improving as the ratio between the numbers increased. This finding suggests that the approximate number system or analogue magnitude estimation may control their behavior. However, as the number size increased, their performance declined, also suggesting that the approximate number system alone could not explain the present results.
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Affiliation(s)
- Masaki Tomonaga
- Japan Monkey Centre, Inuyama, Aichi, 484-0081, Japan.
- University of Human Environments, Matsuyama, Ehime, 790-0825, Japan.
| | | | - Anna Wilkinson
- School of Life Sciences, University of Lincoln, Lincoln, LN6 7DL, UK.
- Wildlife Research Center, Kyoto University, Kyoto, 606-8203, Japan.
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Lee H, Choi W, Lee D, Paik SB. Comparison of visual quantities in untrained neural networks. Cell Rep 2023; 42:112900. [PMID: 37516959 DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2023.112900] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/15/2023] [Revised: 05/25/2023] [Accepted: 07/13/2023] [Indexed: 08/01/2023] Open
Abstract
The ability to compare quantities of visual objects with two distinct measures, proportion and difference, is observed even in newborn animals. However, how this function originates in the brain, even before visual experience, remains unknown. Here, we propose a model in which neuronal tuning for quantity comparisons can arise spontaneously in completely untrained neural circuits. Using a biologically inspired model neural network, we find that single units selective to proportions and differences between visual quantities emerge in randomly initialized feedforward wirings and that they enable the network to perform quantity comparison tasks. Notably, we find that two distinct tunings to proportion and difference originate from a random summation of monotonic, nonlinear neural activities and that a slight difference in the nonlinear response function determines the type of measure. Our results suggest that visual quantity comparisons are primitive types of functions that can emerge spontaneously before learning in young brains.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hyeonsu Lee
- Department of Bio and Brain Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Daejeon 34141, Republic of Korea
| | - Woochul Choi
- Department of Bio and Brain Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Daejeon 34141, Republic of Korea
| | - Dongil Lee
- Department of Bio and Brain Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Daejeon 34141, Republic of Korea
| | - Se-Bum Paik
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Daejeon 34141, Republic of Korea.
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Sun X, Piao Y, Wang T, Wang J, Fu J, Cui J. Keep numbers in view: red-eared sliders ( Trachemys scripta elegans) learn to discriminate relative quantities. Biol Lett 2023; 19:20230203. [PMID: 37465912 PMCID: PMC10354689 DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2023.0203] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/07/2023] [Accepted: 07/03/2023] [Indexed: 07/20/2023] Open
Abstract
The ability to discriminate relative quantities, one of the numerical competences, is considered an adaptive trait in uncertain environments. Besides humans, previous studies have reported this capacity in several non-human primates and birds. Here, we test whether red-eared sliders (Trachemys scripta elegans) can discriminate different relative quantities. Subjects were first trained to distinguish different stimuli with food reward. Then, they were tested with novel stimulus pairs to demonstrate how they distinguished the stimuli. The results show that most subjects can complete the initial training and use relative quantity rather than absolute quantity to make choices during the testing phase. This study provides behavioural evidence of relative quantity discrimination in a reptile species and suggests that such capacity may be widespread among vertebrates.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xiaoqian Sun
- CAS Key Laboratory of Mountain Ecological Restoration and Bioresource Utilization & Ecological Restoration and Biodiversity Conservation Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, Chengdu Institute of Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chengdu 610041, People's Republic of China
- University of Chinese Academy of Science, Beijing 100049, People's Republic of China
| | - Yige Piao
- Wildlife Research Center, Kyoto University, Kyoto 606-8203, Japan
| | - Tongliang Wang
- Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Ecology of Tropical Islands, Key Laboratory of Tropical Animal and Plant Ecology of Hainan Province, College of Life Sciences, Hainan Normal University, Haikou 571158, People's Republic of China
| | - Jichao Wang
- Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Ecology of Tropical Islands, Key Laboratory of Tropical Animal and Plant Ecology of Hainan Province, College of Life Sciences, Hainan Normal University, Haikou 571158, People's Republic of China
| | - Jinzhong Fu
- CAS Key Laboratory of Mountain Ecological Restoration and Bioresource Utilization & Ecological Restoration and Biodiversity Conservation Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, Chengdu Institute of Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chengdu 610041, People's Republic of China
- Departments of Integrative Biology, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, N1G 2W1, Canada
| | - Jianguo Cui
- CAS Key Laboratory of Mountain Ecological Restoration and Bioresource Utilization & Ecological Restoration and Biodiversity Conservation Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, Chengdu Institute of Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chengdu 610041, People's Republic of China
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