Natural variation in developmental condition has limited effect on spatial cognition in a wild food-caching bird
Natural variation in developmental condition has limited effect on spatial cognition in a wild food-caching bird
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DOI：
10.1098/rspb.2022.1169
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发表时间：
2022-10
期刊：
影响因子：
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通讯作者：
B. R. Sonnenberg;V. Heinen;A. Pitera;L. M. Benedict;C. Branch;E. Bridge;J. Ouyang;V. Pravosudov
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文献类型：
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作者：
B. R. Sonnenberg;V. Heinen;A. Pitera;L. M. Benedict;C. Branch;E. Bridge;J. Ouyang;V. Pravosudov
实验室研究表明，在发育过程中增加的生理负担会导致认知障碍。在野外，动物会经历各种各样的发育条件，了解这些条件的变化如何影响以后生活中的认知能力是至关重要的，特别是在强烈依赖这些能力生存的物种中。我们测试了是否在发展条件的变化与野生食物缓存山雀的空间认知能力的差异。使用尾羽发育过程中的幼鸟，我们测量了羽毛皮质酮（Cortf）的水平和增长率，并测试这些鸟在他们的第一个冬天的两个空间学习任务。在3年中只有1年，高羽毛Cortf与记忆获得呈负相关。在另外2年的研究中，羽毛Cortf和任何其他空间认知测量之间没有显着关联，在整个研究期间，羽毛生长速率和任何认知测量之间也没有显着关联。我们的研究结果表明，在野生环境中，自然存在的发育条件的变化对空间认知能力的影响有限，至少在食物缓存物种中是如此。这表明，可能存在补偿机制，以缓冲专门的认知能力对发展的干扰。
Laboratory studies show that increased physiological burden during development results in cognitive impairment. In the wild, animals experience a wide range of developmental conditions, and it is critical to understand how variation in such conditions affects cognitive abilities later in life, especially in species that strongly depend on such abilities for survival. We tested whether variation in developmental condition is associated with differences in spatial cognitive abilities in wild food-caching mountain chickadees. Using tail feathers grown during development in juvenile birds, we measured feather corticosterone (Cortf) levels and growth rates and tested these birds during their first winter on two spatial learning tasks. In only 1 of the 3 years, higher feather Cortf was negatively associated with memory acquisition. No significant associations between feather Cortf and any other measurement of spatial cognition were detected in the other 2 years of the study or between feather growth rate and any measurement of cognition during the entire study. Our results suggest that in the wild, naturally existing variation in developmental condition has only a limited effect on spatial cognitive abilities, at least in a food-caching species. This suggests that there may be compensatory mechanisms to buffer specialized cognitive abilities against developmental perturbations.