Male cognitive performance declines in the absence of sexual selection
Male cognitive performance declines in the absence of sexual selection
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DOI：
10.1098/rspb.2013.2873
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发表时间：
2014-04-22
影响因子：
4.7
通讯作者：
Kawecki, Tadeusz J.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Hollis, Brian;Kawecki, Tadeusz J.
性选择对男性装饰品和武器的进化负责，但它在认知进化中的作用——处理、保留和使用信息的能力——很大程度上尚未被探索。由于成功的求爱可能涉及在复杂的竞争性性环境中处理信息，我们假设性选择有助于雄性认知能力的进化和维持。为了验证这一点，我们从实验种群中消除了配偶选择和配偶竞争，在100多代中强制实行一夫一妻制。在相对复杂的认知任务中，一夫一妻制下进化的雄性不如一夫多妻制下的雄性熟练。当面对一只接受性和几只不接受性的雌性时，一夫多妻制的雄性会迅速将注意力集中在接受性的雌性身上，而一夫一妻制的雄性会继续向不接受性的雌性求爱。结果，一夫一妻制的雄性在这种复杂的环境中不太成功，尽管它们和一夫多妻制的雄性一样快，只有一个接受性的雌性。这种使用过去信息的能力的减弱并不局限于求偶环境：一夫一妻制的雄性（但不是雌性）也表现出厌恶嗅觉学习能力的降低。我们的研究结果提供了直接的实验证据，证明性选择的强度是男性认知能力进化的重要因素。
Sexual selection is responsible for the evolution of male ornaments and armaments, but its role in the evolution of cognition-the ability to process, retain and use information-is largely unexplored. Because successful courtship is likely to involve processing information in complex, competitive sexual environments, we hypothesized that sexual selection contributes to the evolution and maintenance of cognitive abilities in males. To test this, we removed mate choice and mate competition from experimental populations of Drosophila melanogaster by enforcing monogamy for over 100 generations. Males evolved under monogamy became less proficient than polygamous control males at relatively complex cognitive tasks. When faced with one receptive and several unreceptive females, polygamous males quickly focused on receptive females, whereas monogamous males continued to direct substantial courtship effort towards unreceptive females. As a result, monogamous males were less successful in this complex setting, despite being as quick to mate as their polygamous counterparts with only one receptive female. This diminished ability to use past information was not limited to the courtship context: monogamous males (but not females) also showed reduced aversive olfactory learning ability. Our results provide direct experimental evidence that the intensity of sexual selection is an important factor in the evolution of male cognitive ability.