"Development, evolution and mechanisms of social learning"

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Animals learn from each other, and this process of 'social learning' has been demonstrated to be important to individual success in many species, ranging from nest-site selection in birds and predator recognition in fish to food selection in rodents and teaching in humans. The influential but unproven 'behavioural drive' hypothesis suggests that social learning can even alter the rate and course of genetic evolution. However, despite its theoretical and empirically-demonstrated importance, we know little about the evolution of social learning or its underlying neural processing. It is not even known whether social learning typically requires dedicated, specialized cognitive processes, independent from other learning processes. Here, I link these questions to form a novel research program. To examine the evolution of social learning, it is vital to establish the mechanisms that are involved, and their independence from other traits. Moreover, evolutionary questions require specialized approaches. By using the rapidly-breeding guppy and zebrafish, robust social learners, we are able to examine evolution both experimentally in the laboratory and by comparative study in the wild. I will thus be able to test the predictions of highly influential but largely untested mathematical models that have shaped the field of social learning. An experimental evolution approach has never been applied to social learning, and nor has it been combined with examination of evolved changes in underlying neurocognitive mechanisms. I propose a number of short-term projects that are critical steps in a long-term research program addressing the neural mechanisms of social learning, the evolution of social learning, and the consequences of social learning for the evolution and ecology of species. This fundamental and potentially transformative research has varied applications that are highly relevant to Canada, from understanding the mechanisms underlying deficits in human social cognition to improving the success of fisheries. Moreover, the work will provide world-class training opportunities for undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral researchers in multiple disciplines.