Food-Caching And Spatial Cognition: Harsher Winters Favor More Caching And Better Cognitive Abilities

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vladimir V. Pravosudov
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Cognition ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Food Caching

scholarly journals Specialized spatial cognition is associated with reduced cognitive senescence in a food-caching bird

2021 ◽  
Vol 288 (1947) ◽  
Author(s):  
Virginia K. Heinen ◽  
Angela M. Pitera ◽  
Benjamin R. Sonnenberg ◽  
Lauren M. Benedict ◽  
Carrie L. Branch ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Cognition ◽  
Learning And Memory ◽  
Spatial Learning ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Wild Food ◽  
Spatial Learning And Memory ◽  
Loss Of Function ◽  
Food Caching ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Survival And Reproduction

Senescence, the gradual reduction and loss of function as organisms age, is a widespread process that is especially pronounced in cognitive abilities. Senescence appears to have a genetic basis and can be affected by evolutionary processes. If cognitive senescence is shaped by natural selection, it may be linked with selection on cognitive abilities needed for survival and reproduction, such that species where fitness is directly related to cognitive abilities should evolve delayed cognitive senescence likely resulting in higher lifetime fitness. We used wild food-caching mountain chickadees, which rely on specialized spatial cognition to recover thousands of food caches annually, to test for cognitive senescence in spatial learning and memory and reversal spatial learning and memory abilities. We detected no signs of age-related senescence in spatial cognitive performance on either task in birds ranging from 1 to 6 years old; older birds actually performed better on spatial learning and memory tasks. Our results therefore suggest that cognitive senescence may be either delayed (potentially appearing after 6 years) or negligible in species with strong selection on cognitive abilities and that food-caching species may present a useful model to investigate mechanisms associated with cognitive senescence.

scholarly journals Problems faced by food-caching corvids and the evolution of cognitive solutions

2010 ◽  
Vol 365 (1542) ◽  
pp. 977-987 ◽  
Author(s):  
Uri Grodzinski ◽  
Nicola S. Clayton
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Future Planning ◽  
Scatter Hoarding ◽  
Quality Of Information ◽  
Food Caching ◽  
Informed Decisions ◽  
Cache Protection

The scatter hoarding of food, or caching, is a widespread and well-studied behaviour. Recent experiments with caching corvids have provided evidence for episodic-like memory, future planning and possibly mental attribution, all cognitive abilities that were thought to be unique to humans. In addition to the complexity of making flexible, informed decisions about caching and recovering, this behaviour is underpinned by a motivationally controlled compulsion to cache. In this review, we shall first discuss the compulsive side of caching both during ontogeny and in the caching behaviour of adult corvids. We then consider some of the problems that these birds face and review the evidence for the cognitive abilities they use to solve them. Thus, the emergence of episodic-like memory is viewed as a solution for coping with food perishability, while the various cache-protection and pilfering strategies may be sophisticated tools to deprive competitors of information, either by reducing the quality of information they can gather, or invalidating the information they already have. Finally, we shall examine whether such future-oriented behaviour involves future planning and ask why this and other cognitive abilities might have evolved in corvids.

scholarly journals Food discovery is associated with different reliance on social learning and lower cognitive flexibility across environments in a food-caching bird

2021 ◽  
Vol 288 (1951) ◽  
pp. 20202843
Author(s):  
Virginia K. Heinen ◽  
Angela M. Pitera ◽  
Benjamin R. Sonnenberg ◽  
Lauren M. Benedict ◽  
Eli S. Bridge ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Learning ◽  
Cognitive Flexibility ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Information Acquisition ◽  
Social Information ◽  
High Elevation ◽  
Independent Learning ◽  
Food Sources ◽  
Novel Food ◽  
Food Caching

Social learning is a primary mechanism for information acquisition in social species. Despite many benefits, social learning may be disadvantageous when independent learning is more efficient. For example, searching independently may be more advantageous when food sources are ephemeral and unpredictable. Individual differences in cognitive abilities can also be expected to influence social information use. Specifically, better spatial memory can make a given environment more predictable for an individual by allowing it to better track food sources. We investigated how resident food-caching chickadees discovered multiple novel food sources in both harsher, less predictable high elevation and milder, more predictable low elevation winter environments. Chickadees at high elevation were faster at discovering multiple novel food sources and discovered more food sources than birds at low elevation. While birds at both elevations used social information, the contribution of social learning to food discovery was significantly lower at high elevation. At both elevations, chickadees with better spatial cognitive flexibility were slower at discovering food sources, likely because birds with lower spatial cognitive flexibility are worse at tracking natural resources and therefore spend more time exploring. Overall, our study supported the prediction that harsh environments should favour less reliance on social learning.

Information maintenance of food sources is associated with environment, spatial cognition and age in a food-caching bird

2021 ◽  
Vol 182 ◽  
pp. 153-172
Author(s):  
Lauren M. Benedict ◽  
Angela M. Pitera ◽  
Carrie L. Branch ◽  
Benjamin R. Sonnenberg ◽  
Virginia K. Heinen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Cognition ◽  
Food Sources ◽  
Food Caching

scholarly journals Testing the greater male variability phenomenon: male mountain chickadees exhibit larger variation in reversal learning performance compared with females

2020 ◽  
Vol 287 (1931) ◽  
pp. 20200895
Author(s):  
Carrie L. Branch ◽  
Benjamin R. Sonnenberg ◽  
Angela M. Pitera ◽  
Lauren M. Benedict ◽  
Dovid Y. Kozlovsky ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sex Differences ◽  
Cognitive Performance ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Memory Task ◽  
Spatial Task ◽  
Learning Performance ◽  
Spatial Learning And Memory ◽  
Male And Female ◽  
Food Caching ◽  
Range Of Variation

The greater male variability phenomenon predicts that males exhibit larger ranges of variation in cognitive performance compared with females; however, support for this pattern has come exclusively from studies of humans and lacks mechanistic explanation. Furthermore, the vast majority of the literature assessing sex differences in cognition is based on studies of humans and a few other mammals. In order to elucidate the underpinnings of cognitive variation and the potential for fitness consequences, we must investigate sex differences in cognition in non-mammalian systems as well. Here, we assess the performance of male and female food-caching birds on a spatial learning and memory task and a reversal spatial task to address whether there are sex differences in mean cognitive performance or in the range of variation in performance. For both tasks, male and female mean performance was similar across four years of testing; however, males did exhibit a wider range of variation in performance on the reversal spatial task compared with females. The implications for mate choice and sexual selection of cognitive abilities are discussed and future directions are suggested to aid in the understanding of sex-related cognitive variation.

scholarly journals No Evidence for Cross-Contextual Consistency in Spatial Cognition or Behavioral Flexibility in a Passerine

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 446-461
Author(s):  
Camille A. Troisi ◽  
Amy C. Cooke ◽  
Gabrielle L. Davidson ◽  
Iván de la Hera ◽  
Michael S. Reichert ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Cognition ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Animal Studies ◽  
Spatial Scales ◽  
Behavioral Flexibility ◽  
Parus Major ◽  
Spatial Task ◽  
Cognitive Domain ◽  
Current Evidence ◽  
Two Measures

Although the evolution of cognitive differences among species has long been of interest in ecology, whether natural selection acts on cognitive processes within populations has only begun to receive similar attention. One of the key challenges is to understand how consistently cognitive traits within any one domain are expressed over time and across different contexts, as this has direct implications for the way in which selection might act on this variation. Animal studies typically measure a cognitive domain using only one task in one context and assume that this captures the likely expression of that domain in different contexts. This use of limited and restricted measures is not surprising because, from an ecologist’s perspective, cognitive tasks are laborious to employ, and if the measure requires learning a particular aspect of the task (e.g., reward type, cue availability, scale of testing), then it is difficult to repeat the task as the learning is context specific. Thus, our knowledge of whether individual differences in cognitive abilities are consistent across contexts is limited, and current evidence suggests that consistency is weak. We tested up to 32 wild great tits (Parus major) to characterize the consistency of two cognitive abilities, each in two different contexts: 1) spatial cognition at two different spatial scales, and 2) behavioral flexibility as performance in a detour reaching task and reversal learning in a spatial task. We found no evidence of a correlation between individuals’ performance in two measures of spatial cognition or two measures of behavioral flexibility. This suggests that cognitive performance is highly plastic and sensitive to differences across tasks, that variants of these well-known tasks may tap into different combinations of both cognitive and non-cognitive mechanisms, or that the tasks simply do not adequately measure each putative cognitive domain. Our results highlight the challenges of developing standardized cognitive assays to explain natural behavior and to understand the selective consequences of that variation.

scholarly journals Pharmacological evidence is consistent with a prominent role of spatial memory in complex navigation

2016 ◽  
Vol 283 (1824) ◽  
pp. 20152548 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy C. Roth ◽  
Aaron R. Krochmal
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Memory ◽  
Spatial Cognition ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Muscarinic Acetylcholine Receptor ◽  
Free Living ◽  
Naturally Occurring ◽  
Spatial Environment ◽  
Navigation Strategies

The ability to learn about the spatial environment plays an important role in navigation, migration, dispersal, and foraging. However, our understanding of both the role of cognition in the development of navigation strategies and the mechanisms underlying these strategies is limited. We tested the hypothesis that complex navigation is facilitated by spatial memory in a population of Chrysemys picta that navigate with extreme precision (±3.5 m) using specific routes that must be learned prior to age three. We used scopolamine, a muscarinic acetylcholine receptor antagonist, to manipulate the cognitive spatial abilities of free-living turtles during naturally occurring overland movements. Experienced adults treated with scopolamine diverted markedly from their precise navigation routes. Naive juveniles lacking experience (and memory) were not affected by scopolamine, and thereby served as controls for perceptual or non-spatial cognitive processes associated with navigation. Further, neither adult nor juvenile movement was affected by methylscopolamine, a form of scopolamine that does not cross the blood–brain barrier, a control for the peripheral effects of scopolamine. Together, these results are consistent with a role of spatial cognition in complex navigation and highlight a cellular mechanism that might underlie spatial cognition. Overall, our findings expand our understanding of the development of complex cognitive abilities of vertebrates and the neurological mechanisms of navigation.

Elevation-related differences in annual survival of adult food-caching mountain chickadees are consistent with natural selection on spatial cognition

2020 ◽  
Vol 74 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
L. M. Benedict ◽  
A. M. Pitera ◽  
C. L. Branch ◽  
D. Y. Kozlovsky ◽  
B. R. Sonnenberg ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
Spatial Cognition ◽  
Annual Survival ◽  
Food Caching ◽  
Adult Food ◽  
Mountain Chickadees

scholarly journals Natural Selection and Spatial Cognition in Wild Food-Caching Mountain Chickadees

2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 670-676.e3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin R. Sonnenberg ◽  
Carrie L. Branch ◽  
Angela M. Pitera ◽  
Eli Bridge ◽  
Vladimir V. Pravosudov
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
Spatial Cognition ◽  
Wild Food ◽  
Food Caching ◽  
Mountain Chickadees

scholarly journals Variation in hippocampal morphology along an environmental gradient: controlling for the effects of day length

2011 ◽  
Vol 278 (1718) ◽  
pp. 2662-2667 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy C. Roth ◽  
Lara D. LaDage ◽  
Vladimir V. Pravosudov
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Memory ◽  
Snow Cover ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Memory Function ◽  
Geographical Area ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Day Length ◽  
Relative Role ◽  
Food Caching ◽  
Significant Difference

Environmental conditions may create increased demands for memory, which in turn may affect specific brain regions responsible for memory function. This may occur either via phenotypic plasticity or selection for individuals with enhanced cognitive abilities. For food-caching animals, in particular, spatial memory appears to be important because it may have a direct effect on fitness via their ability to accurately retrieve food caches. Our previous studies have shown that caching animals living in more harsh environments (characterized by low temperatures, high snow cover and short day lengths) possess more neurons within a larger hippocampus (Hp), a part of the brain involved in spatial memory. However, the relative role of each of these environmental features in the relationship is unknown. Here, we dissociate the effects of one theoretically important factor (day length) within the environmental severity/Hp relationship by examining food-caching birds (black-capped chickadee, Poecile atricapillus ) selected at locations along the same latitude, but with very different climatic regimes. There was a significant difference in Hp attributes among populations along the same latitude with very different climatic features. Birds from the climatically mild location had significantly smaller Hp volumes and fewer Hp neurons than birds from the more harsh populations, even though all populations experienced similar day lengths. These results suggest that variables such as temperature and snow cover seem to be important even without the compounding effect of reduced day length at higher latitudes and suggest that low temperature and snow cover alone may be sufficient to generate high demands for memory and the hippocampus. Our data further confirmed that the association between harsh environment and the hippocampus in food-caching animals is robust across a large geographical area and across years.

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