Rearing-Group Size Determines Social Competence and Brain Structure in a Cooperatively Breeding Cichlid
Rearing-Group Size Determines Social Competence and Brain Structure in a Cooperatively Breeding Cichlid
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DOI：
10.1086/681636
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发表时间：
2015-07-01
影响因子：
2.9
通讯作者：
Taborsky, Barbara
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Fischer, Stefan;Bessert-Nettelbeck, Mathilde;Taborsky, Barbara
社会性动物可以从发达的社会技能中受益匪浅。由于社交互动的频率和多样性往往随着社会群体的规模而增加，因此可以预期高级社交技能的好处会随着群体规模的增加而增加。社会技能的变化往往出现在个体发育过程中，这取决于早期的社会经验。社会群体规模的变化是否会影响社会技能的发展和大脑结构的相关变化仍然没有被探索。我们调查了在合作繁殖的慈鲷中，早期群体大小是否（1）塑造社会行为和社会技能，（2）诱导大脑结构的持久可塑性变化，（3）社会技能的发展是否局限于敏感的个体发育时期。抚养群体的大小和青少年在这些群体中度过的时间交互影响社会技能的发展和四个主要脑区的相对大小。我们没有发现一个敏感的发展时期的社会行为的形成在2个月的经验阶段。相反，我们的研究结果表明，随着时间的推移，塑料行为会发生持续的变化。我们讨论了社会行为和大脑结构的发展影响可能会适应性地调整其当前或未来的环境表型。
Social animals can greatly benefit from well-developed social skills. Because the frequency and diversity of social interactions often increase with the size of social groups, the benefits of advanced social skills can be expected to increase with group size. Variation in social skills often arises during ontogeny, depending on early social experience. Whether variation of social-group sizes affects development of social skills and related changes in brain structures remains unexplored. We investigated whether, in a cooperatively breeding cichlid, early group size (1) shapes social behavior and social skills and (2) induces lasting plastic changes in gross brain structures and (3) whether the development of social skills is confined to a sensitive ontogenetic period. Rearing-group size and the time juveniles spent in these groups interactively influenced the development of social skills and the relative sizes of four main brain regions. We did not detect a sensitive developmental period for the shaping of social behavior within the 2-month experience phase. Instead, our results suggest continuous plastic behavioral changes over time. We discuss how developmental effects on social behavior and brain architecture may adaptively tune phenotypes to their current or future environments.