Social Learning: Evolution, Ecology and Mechanisms

从鸟类的筑巢地点选择到人类的教学，社会学习，即向他人学习，已被证明对许多物种的个体成功至关重要。通过利用其他动物的发现，动物可以迅速适应不断变化的环境，而不需要个体探索的成本和风险。这可以使个人利用新的机会，进入新的栖息地，以及适应人类影响的环境。事实上，一些有影响力但基本上未经验证的假设表明，社会学习可以影响许多生态和进化过程。然而，我们对社会学习如何进化或其潜在的神经处理知之甚少。例如，社会学习是否典型地依赖于可以独立于其他学习过程而发展和进化的专门的、专门的认知过程，或者社会学习是否仅仅是个人学习过程的一种表达，目前仍未得到解决。这是一个重要的差距，因为答案将决定社会学习的分类分布和它有利的环境。******在这里，我提出了一个雄心勃勃的长期研究计划的步骤，该计划使用行为，神经科学和选择研究来联系神经认知机制，发展和进化。我们打算确定是否有专门的机制参与社会学习，他们的影响，并揭示有利于他们进化的因素。进化问题需要专门的方法，因此我们将研究快速繁殖的孔雀鱼，一种强大的社会学习者，并通过实验室和野外的比较研究来研究进化。采用受进化发育生物学启发的方法，我们将使用动物训练和人工选择来确定社会学习是否可以独立于其他过程发展和进化。我们将这项工作与神经和激素过程的广泛调查结合起来，假设这些过程是社会学习的基础，使用各种现代技术，重点关注神经肽的催产素家族和压力轴。从了解人类社会认知缺陷的潜在机制到动物保护和提高渔业的成功，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。

Social learning, learning from others, has been demonstrated to be important to individual success in many species, ranging from nest-site selection in birds to teaching in humans. By taking advantage of the discoveries of others, animals can rapidly adjust to changing environments, without the costs and risks of individual exploration. This can allow individuals to exploit new opportunities and enter new habitats, as well as adapt to human-impacted environments. Indeed, influential but largely untested hypotheses have suggested that social learning can impact many ecological and evolutionary processes. However, we know little about how social learning evolves or its underlying neural processing. For example, it remains unresolved whether social learning typically rests upon dedicated, specialized cognitive processes that can develop and evolve independently from other learning processes, or if instead social learning is simply an expression of the processes that underlie individual learning. This is a significant gap, because the answer will determine both the taxonomic distribution of social learning and the circumstances under which it is advantageous. ******Here, I propose steps in an ambitious long-term research program that uses studies of behaviour, neuroscience and selection to link neurocognitive mechanisms, development and evolution. We intend to determine whether specialized mechanisms are involved in social learning, their impact, and to uncover the factors favouring their evolution. Evolutionary questions require specialized approaches, and so we will study the rapidly-breeding guppy, a robust social learner, and examine evolution in the laboratory and by comparative study in the wild. Adopting approaches inspired by evolutionary developmental biology, we will use animal training and artificial selection to determine whether social learning can develop and evolve independently from other processes. We combine this work with extensive investigation of neural and hormonal processes hypothesized to underpin social learning, using a variety of modern techniques, focusing on the oxytocin family of neuropeptides and the stress axis. 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 animal conservation and improving the success of fisheries. Moreover, the work will provide world-class training opportunities for undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral researchers in multiple disciplines.