scholarly journals Maternal predator-exposure has lifelong consequences for offspring learning in threespined sticklebacks

2012 ◽  
Vol 8 (6) ◽  
pp. 932-935 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel P. Roche ◽  
Katie E. McGhee ◽  
Alison M. Bell
Keyword(s):  
Predation Risk ◽  
Maternal Effects ◽  
Discrimination Task ◽  
Food Reward ◽  
Gasterosteus Aculeatus ◽  
Learning Performance ◽  
Behavioural Plasticity ◽  
Adult Offspring ◽  
Important Form ◽  
Model Predator

Learning is an important form of phenotypic plasticity that allows organisms to adjust their behaviour to the environment. An individual's learning performance can be affected by its mother's environment. For example, mothers exposed to stressors, such as restraint and forced swimming, often produce offspring with impaired learning performance. However, it is unclear whether there are maternal effects on offspring learning when mothers are exposed to ecologically relevant stressors, such as predation risk. Here, we examined whether maternal predator-exposure affects adult offsprings’ learning of a discrimination task in threespined sticklebacks ( Gasterosteus aculeatus ). Mothers were either repeatedly chased by a model predator (predator-exposed) or not (unexposed) while producing eggs. Performance of adult offspring from predator-exposed and unexposed mothers was assessed in a discrimination task that paired a particular coloured chamber with a food reward. Following training, all offspring learned the colour-association, but offspring of predator-exposed mothers located the food reward more slowly than offspring of unexposed mothers. This pattern was not driven by initial differences in exploratory behaviour. These results demonstrate that an ecologically relevant stressor (predation risk) can induce maternal effects on offspring learning, and perhaps behavioural plasticity more generally, that last into adulthood.

scholarly journals Maternal effects across life stages: larvae experiencing predation risk increase offspring provisioning

2019 ◽  
Vol 44 (6) ◽  
pp. 738-744 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natasha Tigreros ◽  
Rachel H. Norris ◽  
Jennifer S Thaler
Keyword(s):  
Predation Risk ◽  
Maternal Effects ◽  
Life Stages ◽  
Risk Increase

Density dependence and numerosity in fright stimulated aggregation behaviour of shoaling fish

1995 ◽  
Vol 350 (1334) ◽  
pp. 381-390 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Predation Risk ◽  
Gasterosteus Aculeatus ◽  
Light Stimulus ◽  
Early Stage ◽  
Critical Distance ◽  
The Other ◽  
Size Difference ◽  
Total Risk ◽  
Aggregation Behaviour ◽  
Test Fish

Single three-spined sticklebacks, Gasterosteus aculeatus , were frightened with a light stimulus simulating an aerial predator while facing a choice between two conspecific display shoals of different membership sizes. We observed which shoal the test fish approached. Initially, both display shoals were equidistant from the test fish. The smaller shoal was then moved gradually closer whereas the larger shoal stayed at a constant distance. This experiment modelled an early stage of the aggregation behaviour of sticklebacks in response to perceived imminent predation risk. When the two display shoals were equidistant from the test fish, we found that the test animal preferred approaching the larger display shoal, and the magnitude of this preference increased with increasing display shoal size difference. This demonstrates that the aggregation behaviour of frightened sticklebacks is density dependent. Further, we found that sticklebacks made a trade-off between the distance to a display shoal and its membership size. In particular, for a given ratio of display shoal sizes, there was a critical distance at which half of all tested animals turned to one and the other half to the other display shoal. This demonstrates that the observed aggregation behaviour is also distance dependent. We introduce several elementary models which formalize individual predation risk and explore how distance and display shoal size contribute to total risk. In particular, we distinguish between total risk as a product or as a sum of the risk components associated with swimming distance and display shoal size, respectively. All models follow the ‘partial preferences’ paradigm of McNamara & Houston ( Anim. Behav . 35, 1084-1099 (1987)). We compare how closely these models match the observed data and how well they predict the empirical critical distances. We find a consistent discrepancy between theory and data, which we resolve by invoking a fundamental perceptual limit (numerosity) for shoal size discrimination.

scholarly journals Female sticklebacks transfer information via eggs: effects of maternal experience with predators on offspring

2010 ◽  
Vol 278 (1712) ◽  
pp. 1753-1759 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric R. Giesing ◽  
Cory D. Suski ◽  
Richard E. Warner ◽  
Alison M. Bell
Keyword(s):  
Predation Risk ◽  
Gasterosteus Aculeatus ◽  
Somatic Growth ◽  
Maternal Exposure ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Maternal Experience ◽  
Egg Formation ◽  
Shoaling Behaviour ◽  
Genetic Mechanisms ◽  
Antipredator Defence

There is growing evidence that maternal experience influences offspring via non-genetic mechanisms. When female three-spined sticklebacks ( Gasterosteus aculeatus ) were exposed to the threat of predation, they produced larger eggs with higher cortisol content, which consumed more oxygen shortly after fertilization compared with a control group. As juveniles, the offspring of predator-exposed mothers exhibited tighter shoaling behaviour, an antipredator defence. We did not detect an effect of maternal exposure to predation risk on the somatic growth of fry. Altogether, we found that exposure to an ecologically relevant stressor during egg formation had several long-lasting consequences for offspring, some of which might be mediated by exposure to maternally derived cortisol. These results support the hypothesis that female sticklebacks might influence the development, growth and behaviour of their offspring via eggs to match their future environment.

scholarly journals The measure of spatial position within groups that best predicts predation risk depends on group movement

2021 ◽  
Vol 288 (1959) ◽  
pp. 20211286
Author(s):  
Poppy J. Lambert ◽  
James E. Herbert-Read ◽  
Christos C. Ioannou
Keyword(s):  
Predation Risk ◽  
Gasterosteus Aculeatus ◽  
Limited Range ◽  
Spatial Position ◽  
Theoretical Studies ◽  
Group Movement ◽  
Poor Predictor ◽  
Spatial Measures ◽  
Moving Groups ◽  
Local Crowding

Both empirical and theoretical studies show that an individual's spatial position within a group can impact the risk of being targeted by predators. Spatial positions can be quantified in numerous ways, but there are no direct comparisons of different spatial measures in predicting the risk of being targeted by real predators. Here, we assess these spatial measures in groups of stationary and moving virtual prey being attacked by three-spined sticklebacks ( Gasterosteus aculeatus ). In stationary groups, the limited domain of danger best predicted the likelihood of attack. In moving groups, the number of near neighbours was the best predictor but only over a limited range of distances within which other prey were counted. Otherwise, measures of proximity to the group's edge outperformed measures of local crowding in moving groups. There was no evidence that predators preferentially attacked the front or back of the moving groups. Domains of danger without any limit, as originally used in the selfish herd model, were also a poor predictor of risk. These findings reveal that the collective properties of prey can influence how spatial position affects predation risk, via effects on predators' targeting. Selection may therefore act differently on prey positioning behaviour depending on group movement.

scholarly journals Reversal of a Spatial Discrimination Task in the Common Octopus (Octopus vulgaris)

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Bublitz ◽  
Guido Dehnhardt ◽  
Frederike D. Hanke
Keyword(s):  
Reversal Learning ◽  
Positive Reinforcement ◽  
Discrimination Task ◽  
Behavioral Flexibility ◽  
Learning Performance ◽  
Spatial Discrimination ◽  
Visual Signal ◽  
Octopus Vulgaris ◽  
Learning Criterion ◽  
Incorrect Choice

Reversal learning requires an animal to learn to discriminate between two stimuli but reverse its responses to these stimuli every time it has reached a learning criterion. Thus, different from pure discrimination experiments, reversal learning experiments require the animal to respond to stimuli flexibly, and the reversal learning performance can be taken as an illustration of the animal's cognitive abilities. We herein describe a reversal learning experiment involving a simple spatial discrimination task, choosing the right or left side, with octopus. When trained with positive reinforcement alone, most octopuses did not even learn the original task. The learning behavior changed drastically when incorrect choices were indicated by a visual signal: the octopuses learned the task within a few sessions and completed several reversals thereby decreasing the number of errors needed to complete a reversal successively. A group of octopus trained with the incorrect-choice signal directly acquired the task quickly and reduced their performances over reversals. Our results indicate that octopuses are able to perform successfully in a reversal experiment based on a spatial discrimination showing progressive improvement, however, without reaching the ultimate performance. Thus, depending on the experimental context, octopus can show behavioral flexibility in a reversal learning task, which goes beyond mere discrimination learning.

scholarly journals No evidence for individual recognition in threespine or ninespine sticklebacks ( Gasterosteus aculeatus or Pungitius pungitius )

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (7) ◽  
pp. 191703
Author(s):  
Mike M. Webster ◽  
Kevin N. Laland
Keyword(s):  
Social Learning ◽  
Food Reward ◽  
Gasterosteus Aculeatus ◽  
Individual Recognition ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Model Organisms ◽  
Pungitius Pungitius ◽  
Trained Subjects ◽  
Exciting Opportunity ◽  
Class Level

Recognition plays an important role in the formation and organization of animal groups. Many animals are capable of class-level recognition, discriminating, for example, on the basis of species, kinship or familiarity. Individual recognition requires that animals recognize distinct cues, and learn to associate these with the specific individual from which they are derived. In this study, we asked whether sticklebacks ( Gasterosteus aculeatus and Pungitius pungitius ) were capable of learning to recognize individual conspecifics. We have used these fish as model organisms for studying selective social learning, and demonstrating a capacity for individual recognition in these species would provide an exciting opportunity for studying how biases for copying specific individuals shape the dynamics of information transmission. To test for individual recognition, we trained subjects to associate green illumination with the provision of a food reward close to one of two conspecifics, and, for comparison, one of two physical landmarks. Both species were capable of recognizing the rewarded landmark, but neither showed a preference for associating with the rewarded conspecific. Our study provides no evidence for individual recognition in either species. We speculate that the fission–fusion structure of their social groups may not favour a capacity for individual recognition.

scholarly journals Predation risk affects offspring growth via maternal effects

2011 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 878-888 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Coslovsky ◽  
Heinz Richner
Keyword(s):  
Predation Risk ◽  
Maternal Effects ◽  
Offspring Growth
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