Trans-generational Effects of Social Learning?

 描述(由申请人提供)：公认的是，认知体验可以产生生理后果，这一点已经在各种动物物种中得到了证明。在群居动物中，一群个体分享有关环境和自身的信息。这种信息共享对那些能够学习他人经验的人是有益的。社交学习可以是一种非常有利的适应性策略，因为它允许个人在没有直接的先前经验的情况下预测环境的变化。虽然很明显，社会经历可以导致生理变化，但社会学习的长期生理效应如何在个人身上持续还不清楚。有趣的是，由于社交互动的生理后果可能是长期的，它增加了一种令人兴奋的可能性，即社交学习行为可能会导致跨代影响。社会经验如何、甚至是否会对生殖细胞进行表观重新编程，以便将信息传递给后代，这完全是一个未知的领域。这一提议试图阐明生理变化是如何由社会学习触发的分子遗传学机制，以及这些生理变化如何被后代继承。

 DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): It is well accepted that cognitive experiences can have physiological consequences, and this has been shown in a variety of animal species. In social animals, groups of individuals share information about the environment and about themselves. This sharing of information is beneficial to those capable of learning from the experiences of others. Social learning can be a highly advantageous adaptive strategy since it allows individuals to anticipate changes in the environment without having direct prior experience of that change. Although it is clear that social experiences can lead to physiological changes, how long-term physiological effects of social learning persist in individuals is not understood. Interestingly, because the physiological consequences of social interactions can be long-lasting it raises the exciting possibility that socially learned behaviors could result in tras-generational effects. How or even if social experiences epigenetically reprogram germline cells in order to transmit information to subsequent generation is completely unexplored territory. This proposal seeks to elucidate molecular genetic mechanisms of how physiological changes are triggered by social learning and how these physiological changes can be inherited by future generations.