"Development, evolution and mechanisms of social learning"

动物之间相互学习，这种社会学习的过程已经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。这一颇具影响力但未经证实的“行为驱动”假说表明，社会学习甚至可以改变基因进化的速度和进程。然而，尽管它在理论上和经验上证明了它的重要性，但我们对社会学习的进化或其潜在的神经过程知之甚少。甚至还不知道社交学习是否通常需要专门的、专门的认知过程，独立于其他学习过程。在这里，我将这些问题联系起来，形成一个新颖的研究方案。要考察社会学习的演变，至关重要的是要建立相关的机制，以及它们独立于其他特征的机制。此外，进化论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，健壮的社会学习者，我们能够在实验室和野外通过比较研究来检验进化。因此，我将能够测试极具影响力但在很大程度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。实验进化方法从未被应用于社会学习，也没有与潜在神经认知机制的进化变化的检查相结合。我提出了一些短期项目，这些项目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中的关键步骤。这项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，从理解人类社会认知缺陷的潜在机制到提高渔业的成功。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级的培训机会。

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.