Does is pay to be smart? Cognition and fitness in gray mouse lemurs (Microcebus murinus)

事实上，不是所有物种或给定物种内的所有个体都表现出相同的、无限的认知能力，这表明存在与潜在特征有关的邻近限制和进化权衡。然而，认知能力的个体间差异的大小和来源仍然鲜为人知；主要是因为只有少数(鸟类)研究将认知能力的差异与微观进化过程和健康结果联系起来。我们建议在一种野生灵长类动物--灰鼠狐猴(Microcebus Murinus)--一种短暂的、生态多面手中进行认知-适合度相关性的首次研究。这样的研究不仅将从野生哺乳动物身上获得第一批比较数据，而且还将从通常被认为在认知上复杂的分类群中获得第一批比较数据。具体地说，我们计划将测试个人在不同领域的各种认知能力的实验结果与各种健康指标(如生长、身体状况、生殖成功和长期生存)联系起来，以全面和更详细地分析这些基本特征之间的潜在联系，而不是现有的关于这一主题的研究。因此，这一新颖的功能方法有可能显著提高我们对(灵长类)认知进化的理解，并通过揭示一个短暂的生态多面手是否聪明是值得的，从而为关于这一主题的非灵长类动物的研究贡献重要的比较信息。

The fact that neither all species nor all individuals within a given species exhibit the same, unlimited cognitive abilities indicates the existence of proximate constraints and evolutionary trade-offs involving the underlying traits. However, the magnitude and sources of inter-individual variation in cognitive abilities, in particular, remain poorly known; primarily because only a handful of (bird) studies have linked variation in cognitive abilities to micro-evolutionary processes and fitness outcomes. We propose to conduct the first study of cognition-fitness correlates in a wild primate species, the gray mouse lemur (Microcebus murinus) a short-lived, ecological generalist. Such a study would not only yield the first comparative data from a wild mammal, but also from a taxon generally considered to be cognitively sophisticated. Specifically, we plan to link results of experiments testing individuals on a variety of cognitive abilities in different domains with various fitness measures like growth, body condition, reproductive success and long-term survival to analyze potential links between these fundamental traits in a comprehensive manner and in more detail than existing studies on this topic. Thus, this novel, functional approach has the potential to significantly enhance our understanding of the evolution of (primate) cognition and contribute important comparative information to non-primate studies on this topic by revealing whether it pays to be smart in a short-lived, ecological generalist.