Social Learning: Evolution, Ecology and Mechanisms

在许多物种中，从鸟类的筑巢地点选择到人类的教学，社会学习--向他人学习--已被证明对个体的成功非常重要。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，而不需要承担个人探索的成本和风险。这可以使个人利用新的机会和进入新的栖息地，以及适应人类影响的环境。事实上，有影响力但基本上未经检验的假说表明，社会学习可以影响许多生态和进化过程。然而，我们对社交学习是如何进化的或其潜在的神经过程知之甚少。例如，社会学习是否典型地依赖于专门的、专门的认知过程，可以独立于其他学习过程发展和演变，还是仅仅是个人学习基础过程的一种表达，这一问题仍然没有得到解决。这是一个巨大的差距，因为答案将决定社会学习的分类分布以及在什么情况下它是有利的。*在这里，我提出了一项雄心勃勃的长期研究计划的步骤，该计划利用对行为、神经科学和选择的研究，将神经认知机制、发展和进化联系起来。我们打算确定专门机制是否涉及社会学习，它们的影响，并揭示有利于它们演变的因素。进化问题需要专门的方法，所以我们将研究快速繁殖的孔雀鱼，一种强大的社会学习者，并在实验室和野外通过比较研究来检验进化。采用进化发展生物学启发的方法，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而发展和进化。我们将这项工作与对神经和荷尔蒙过程的广泛研究结合起来，利用各种现代技术，重点研究催产素家族的神经肽和应激轴，以支持社会学习。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动物保护和提高渔业的成功。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。

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.