"Development, evolution and mechanisms of social learning"

动物相互学习，这种“社会学习”过程已被证明对许多物种的个体成功非常重要，从鸟类的筑巢地点选择和鱼类的捕食者识别到啮齿动物的食物选择和人类的教学。有影响力但未经证实的“行为驱动”假说认为，社会学习甚至可以改变基因进化的速度和过程。然而，尽管其理论和经验证明的重要性，我们对社会学习的进化或其潜在的神经处理知之甚少。我们甚至不知道社会学习是否需要独立于其他学习过程的专门的认知过程。在这里，我将这些问题联系起来，形成一个新颖的研究项目。为了研究社会学习的进化，建立相关的机制以及它们与其他特征的独立性是至关重要的。此外，进化问题需要专门的方法。通过使用快速繁殖的孔雀鱼和斑马鱼，这些强大的社会学习者，我们能够在实验室实验和野外比较研究中检查进化。因此，我将能够检验影响很大但基本上未经检验的数学模型的预测，这些模型塑造了社会学习领域。实验进化方法从未应用于社会学习，也没有与潜在神经认知机制的进化变化相结合。我提出了一些短期项目，它们是解决社会学习的神经机制、社会学习的进化以及社会学习对物种进化和生态的影响的长期研究计划的关键步骤。从了解人类社会认知缺陷的潜在机制到提高渔业的成功程度，这一基础性和潜在的变革性研究具有与加拿大高度相关的各种应用。此外，这项工作将为多学科的本科生、研究生和博士后研究人员提供世界一流的培训机会。

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.