Does brain size affect mate choice? An experimental examination in pygmy halfbeaks

McNeil, Rebecca M; Devigili, Alessandro; Kolm, Niclas; Fitzpatrick, John L.

doi:10.1093/beheco/arab046

Cited by 7 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 59 publications

(90 reference statements)

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“…One possible reason for this could be that Triki et al's studies (2022aTriki et al's studies ( , 2023 involved the use of guppies that were selectively bred on divergence in relative telencephalon size over several generations. Often, it is difficult to detect brain morphology effects on behaviour in wild-type strains of laboratory-held animals that are fed ad libitum and where predation selection pressures are removed (see discussion on this topic in (McNeil et al 2021). Hence, while not general across all cognitive abilities assayed here, we find it interesting that the effect of relative telencephalon size is consistent both for wild-type guppies and for artificial selection line guppies targeted for telencephalon size.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 70%

Social complexity affects cognitive abilities but not brain structure in a Poecilid fish

Triki,

Zhou,

Argyriou

et al. 2023

Preprint

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Complex cognitive performance is suggested to be the out-turn of complex social life, allowing individuals to achieve higher fitness through sophisticated “Machiavellian” strategies. Although there is ample support for this concept, especially when comparing species, most of the evidence is correlative. Here we provide an experimental investigation of how group size and composition may affect brain and cognitive development in the guppy (Poecilia reticulata). For six months, we reared sexually mature female guppies in one of three different social treatments: (i) three female guppies; (ii) three female guppies mixed with three female splash tetras (Copella arnoldi), a species that co-occurs with the guppy in the wild; and (iii) six female guppies. We then tested the guppies’ performance in inhibitory control, associative learning and reversal learning tasks to evaluate their self-control, operant conditioning and cognitive flexibility capabilities. Afterwards, we estimated their brain size and the size of major brain regions using X-ray imaging technology. We found that individuals in larger groups of six individuals, in both same and mixed species treatments, outperformed individuals from the smaller groups of three guppies in reversal learning, with no apparent differences in the inhibitory control and associative learning tasks. This is rare evidence of how living in larger social groups improves cognitive flexibility, supporting that social pressures play an important role in shaping individual cognitive development. Interestingly, social manipulation had no apparent effect on brain morphology, but relatively larger telencephalons were associated with better individual performance in reversal learning. This suggests alternative mechanisms beyond brain region size enabled greater cognitive flexibility in individuals from larger groups.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 70%

Social complexity affects cognitive abilities but not brain structure in a Poecilid fish

Triki,

Zhou,

Argyriou

et al. 2023

Preprint

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…One possible reason for this could be that Triki et al’s studies ( 2022a , 2023b ) involved the use of guppies that were selectively bred to reach a divergence in relative telencephalon size over several generations. Often, it is difficult to detect brain morphology effects on behavior in wild-type strains of laboratory-held animals fed ad libitum and where predation selection pressures are removed (see discussion on this topic in ( McNeil et al 2021 )). Hence, while not general across all cognitive abilities assayed here, we find it interesting that the effect of relative telencephalon size on cognitive flexibility is consistent both for wild-type guppies and for artificial selection line guppies targeted for telencephalon size.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social complexity affects cognitive abilities but not brain structure in a Poeciliid fish

Triki,

Zhou,

Argyriou

et al. 2024

Behavioral Ecology

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Some cognitive abilities are suggested to be the result of a complex social life, allowing individuals to achieve higher fitness through advanced strategies. However, most evidence is correlative. Here, we provide an experimental investigation of how group size and composition affect brain and cognitive development in the guppy (Poecilia reticulata). For six months, we reared sexually mature females in one of three social treatments: a small conspecific group of three guppies, a large heterospecific group of three guppies and three splash tetras (Copella arnoldi) – a species that co-occurs with the guppy in the wild, and a large conspecific group of six guppies. We then tested the guppies’ performance in self-control (inhibitory control), operant conditioning (associative learning) and cognitive flexibility (reversal learning) tasks. Using X-ray imaging, we measured their brain size and major brain regions. Larger groups of six individuals, both conspecific and heterospecific groups, showed better cognitive flexibility than smaller groups, but no difference in self-control and operant conditioning tests. Interestingly, while social manipulation had no significant effect on brain morphology, relatively larger telencephalons were associated with better cognitive flexibility. This suggests alternative mechanisms beyond brain region size enabled greater cognitive flexibility in individuals from larger groups. Although there is no clear evidence for the impact on brain morphology, our research shows that living in larger social groups can enhance cognitive flexibility. This indicates that the social environment plays a role in the cognitive development of guppies.

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“…We speculate that individual brain regions are less sensitive to such domestication effects, because even though there may be trade-offs between investment into different brain regions [ 30 ], the energetic costs of individual regions are lower than for the entire brain [ 8 , 41 ]. Because of this, correlations between brain region size and cognitive ability might be possible to reveal also in captive kept populations (see also [ 68 ] for further discussion on this).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Brain morphology correlates of learning and cognitive flexibility in a fish species ( Poecilia reticulata )

et al. 2022

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Determining how variation in brain morphology affects cognitive abilities is important to understand inter-individual variation in cognition and, ultimately, cognitive evolution. Yet, despite many decades of research in this area, there is surprisingly little experimental data available from assays that quantify cognitive abilities and brain morphology in the same individuals. Here, we tested female guppies ( Poecilia reticulata ) in two tasks, colour discrimination and reversal learning, to evaluate their learning abilities and cognitive flexibility. We then estimated the size of five brain regions (telencephalon, optic tectum, hypothalamus, cerebellum and dorsal medulla), in addition to relative brain size. We found that optic tectum relative size, in relation to the rest of the brain, correlated positively with discrimination learning performance, while relative telencephalon size correlated positively with reversal learning performance. The other brain measures were not associated with performance in either task. By evaluating how fast learning occurs and how fast an animal adjusts its learning rules to changing conditions, we find support for that different brain regions have distinct functional correlations at the individual level. Importantly, telencephalon size emerges as an important neural correlate of higher executive functions such as cognitive flexibility. This is rare evidence supporting the theory that more neural tissue in key brain regions confers cognitive benefits.

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Does brain size affect mate choice? An experimental examination in pygmy halfbeaks

Cited by 7 publications

References 59 publications

Social complexity affects cognitive abilities but not brain structure in a Poecilid fish

Social complexity affects cognitive abilities but not brain structure in a Poecilid fish

Social complexity affects cognitive abilities but not brain structure in a Poeciliid fish

Brain morphology correlates of learning and cognitive flexibility in a fish species ( Poecilia reticulata )

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