The gray mouse lemur (Microcebus murinus) as a model for early primate brain evolution

Ho, Chun Lum Andy; Fichtel, Claudia; Huber, Daniel

doi:10.1016/j.conb.2021.09.012

Cited by 10 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 54 publications

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“…Indeed, mouse lemurs are models of choice for various domains of biology, such as neurobiology, including research on ageing (Languille et al, 2012) and nutrition (Pifferi et al, 2018). They are also often considered to possess the characteristics of primate ancestors (small size, arboreal and nocturnal lifestyle, omnivorous diet) (Charles-Dominique & Martin, 1970;Ho et al, 2021;Radespiel & Zimmerman, 2001) and thus are often used in studies exploring the origins of primate behaviour (e.g., Toussaint et al, 2015). It is crucial to take into account the mouse lemurs' emotions in cognitive studies to avoid interpretation bias since our data demonstrate that, compared to neutral stimuli, emotional stimuli modify the cognitive response of mouse lemurs in a discrimination task.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cognitive performance of grey mouse lemurs (Microcebus murinus) during a discrimination learning task: Effect of the emotional valence of stimuli

Mortessagne,

Bovet,

Nozières

et al. 2024

Preprint

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Emotions are omnipresent in many animals’ lives. It is a complex concept that encompasses physiological, subjective, behavioural and cognitive aspects. While the complex relationship between emotion and cognition is well studied in humans, it has yet to be explored in other primate species, such as lemurs. In our study, we evaluated the performance of N=48 grey mouse lemurs (Microcebus murinus) in a discrimination learning task using visual emotional stimuli. We tested whether the type of visual stimulus (positive, negative or neutral) influenced the cognitive performance of mouse lemurs. Individuals had to learn to discriminate between two platforms according to the associated visual stimuli and to jump to the target platform (leading to a reward). Our main finding was that emotional stimuli, whether positive or negative in valence, impaired cognitive performance when used as a target. Specifically, the lowest success rate occurred when the target was associated with the emotional stimuli, and the highest success rate occurred when it was associated with neutral stimuli. Our results show a similar pattern to that found in other primate species and support the adaptative role of emotion. This study is the first to explore how emotions interfere with the cognitive abilities of a lemur species. This highlights the importance of acknowledging emotion in mouse lemurs as well as studying the emotion-cognition interaction in a wider range of primate species.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cognitive performance of grey mouse lemurs (Microcebus murinus) during a discrimination learning task: Effect of the emotional valence of stimuli

Mortessagne,

Bovet,

Nozières

et al. 2024

Preprint

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“…Grey mouse lemurs ( Microcebus murinus ) are small, nocturnal, seasonally breeding, strepsirrhine primates endemic to Madagascar [40]. They live in a multi-male/multi-female neighbourhood showing a large overlap of their home ranges and have access to several potential mating partners [39].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sex differences in the impact of social relationships on individual vocal signatures in grey mouse lemurs ( Microcebus murinus )

Langehennig-Peristenidou,

Scheumann

2024

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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Vocalizations coordinate social interactions between conspecifics by conveying information concerning the individual or group identity of the sender. Social accommodation is a form of vocal learning where social affinity is signalled by converging or diverging vocalizations with those of conspecifics. To investigate whether social accommodation is linked to the social lifestyle of the sender, we investigated sex-specific differences in social accommodation in a dispersed living primate, the grey mouse lemur ( Microcebus murinus ), where females form stable sleeping groups whereas males live solitarily. We used 482 trill calls of 36 individuals from our captive breeding colony to compare acoustic dissimilarity between individuals with genetic relatedness, social contact time and body weight. Our results showed that female trills become more similar the more time females spend with each other, independent of genetic relationship, suggesting vocal convergence. In contrast, male trills were affected more by genetic than social factors. However, focusing only on socialized males, increasing time as cage partners caused greater divergence in males’ trills. Thus, grey mouse lemurs show the capacity for social accommodation, with females converging their trills to signal social closeness to sleeping group partners, whereas males do not adapt or diverge their trills to signal individual distinctiveness. This article is part of the theme issue 'The power of sound: unravelling how acoustic communication shapes group dynamics'.

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“…Grey mouse lemurs are often described as primates who have retained several primitive features (e.g. small size, arboreal and nocturnal lifestyle, omnivorous diet) characteristic of the primate ancestors (Charles- Dominique & Martin, 1970;Ho et al, 2021;Radespiel & Zimmerman, 2001). Weighing between 60 and 120 g and with an average height of 25 cm from head to tail (Languille et al, 2012), it is one of the smallest primates in the world.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Learning performance of grey mouse lemurs (Microcebus murinus) during a visual discrimination task: effect of the stimuli’s emotional value

Mortessagne

Bovet²,

Nozières³

et al. 2023

Preprint

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While the interaction between emotions and cognition is relatively well known in humans, it remains to be explored in non-human primates, whose dedicated studies are carried out on a limited diversity of species, preventing us from discussing the evolutionary origin of this interaction. Here, we explored this cognition-emotion interaction in the grey mouse lemur (Microcebus murinus), often described as possessing ancestral characteristics, allowing us to better comprehend if this link appears soon in the phylogeny of primate. We tested whether emotions could modify the learning performance of 60 mouse lemurs during a visual discrimination task. In this task, individuals had to learn to discriminate between two platforms using emotionally valued visual stimuli and to jump on the target platform. Our results showed that individuals learning performance improved when distractors had an emotional valence compared to when they were neutral. Opposite, individuals had impaired learning performance when targets had an emotional valence compared to when they were neutral. These results are consistent with the cognitive avoidance pattern for negative stimuli reported in other studies. This study is the first to explore emotion in mouse lemurs and to demonstrate that the emotion-cognition interaction is already present in a lemur’s species.

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The gray mouse lemur (Microcebus murinus) as a model for early primate brain evolution

Cited by 10 publications

References 54 publications

Cognitive performance of grey mouse lemurs (Microcebus murinus) during a discrimination learning task: Effect of the emotional valence of stimuli

Cognitive performance of grey mouse lemurs (Microcebus murinus) during a discrimination learning task: Effect of the emotional valence of stimuli

Sex differences in the impact of social relationships on individual vocal signatures in grey mouse lemurs ( Microcebus murinus )

Learning performance of grey mouse lemurs (Microcebus murinus) during a visual discrimination task: effect of the stimuli’s emotional value

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