Domestication effects on behavioural traits and learning performance: comparing wild cavies to guinea pigs
Domestication effects on behavioural traits and learning performance: comparing wild cavies to guinea pigs
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DOI：
10.1007/s10071-014-0781-9
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发表时间：
2015-01-01
期刊：
影响因子：
2.7
通讯作者：
Guenther, Anja
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Brust, Vera;Guenther, Anja
驯化过程导致行为特征的改变，通常是对那些不太注意环境变化和不那么咄咄逼人的个体。然而，认知表现差异的经验证据很少。最近，一个人的行为和认知性能之间的功能联系已经提出了动物人格的框架，通过共享的风险回报权衡。根据这一假设，更大胆、更具攻击性的动物（通常是野生动物）应该学得更快。行为的差异可能出现在个体发育过程中，由于个人的经验或代表适应发生在进化过程中。两者可能单独或一起解释野生和家养谱系之间认知表现的差异。为了测试这种可能的联系，我们比较了野生豚鼠和国内豚鼠，都保持在一个大学股票超过30年，在高度可比的条件下。在三个行为测试以及初始和逆转学习性能中测试动物。与野生同类相比，豚鼠没有那么大胆和好斗，但更快地学会了一种联系。此外，人格结构在驯化过程中也发生了变化。对这些发现最可能的解释是，行为特征及其连通性的变化导致了认知表现的改变。行为和认知特征之间的功能联系似乎只存在于自然选择的情况下，而不存在于几个世纪以来人工选择的动物中。
The domestication process leads to a change in behavioural traits, usually towards individuals that are less attentive to changes in their environment and less aggressive. Empirical evidence for a difference in cognitive performance, however, is scarce. Recently, a functional linkage between an individual's behaviour and cognitive performance has been proposed in the framework of animal personalities via a shared risk-reward trade-off. Following this assumption, bolder and more aggressive animals (usually the wild form) should learn faster. Differences in behaviour may arise during ontogeny due to individual experiences or represent adaptations that occurred over the course of evolution. Both might singly or taken together account for differences in cognitive performance between wild and domestic lineages. To test for such possible linkages, we compared wild cavies and domestic guinea pigs, both kept in a university stock for more than 30 years under highly comparable conditions. Animals were tested in three behavioural tests as well as for initial and reversal learning performance. Guinea pigs were less bold and aggressive than their wild congeners, but learnt an association faster. Additionally, the personality structure was altered during the domestication process. The most likely explanation for these findings is that a shift in behavioural traits and their connectivity led to an altered cognitive performance. A functional linkage between behavioural and cognitive traits seems to exist in the proposed way only under natural selection, but not in animals that have been selected artificially over centuries.