Institute of Integrative and Comparative Biology, University of Leeds, , Leeds LS2 9JT, UK.
Proc Biol Sci. 2010 May 7;277(1686):1395-401. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2009.2055. Epub 2010 Jan 6.
Sensory plasticity, whereby individuals compensate for sensory deprivation in one sense by an improvement in the performance of an alternative sense, is a well-documented phenomenon in nature. Despite this, the behavioural and ecological consequences of sensory plasticity have not been addressed. Here we show experimentally that some components (vision and chemoreception) of the sensory system of guppies are developmentally plastic, and that this plasticity has important consequences for foraging behaviour. Guppies reared under low light conditions had a significantly stronger response to chemical food cues encountered in isolation than fish reared at higher light levels. Conversely, they exhibited a weaker response to visual-only cues. When visual and olfactory/gustatory cues were presented together, no difference between the strength of response for fish reared at different light intensities was evident. Our data suggest that guppies can compensate for experience of a visually poor, low light environment via a sensory switch from vision to olfaction/gustation. This switch from sight to chemoreception may allow individuals to carry out the foraging behaviour that is essential to their survival in a visually poor environment. These considerations are especially important given the increasing frequency of anthropogenic changes to ecosystems. Compensatory phenotypic plasticity as demonstrated by our study may provide a hitherto unconsidered buffer that could allow animals to perform fundamental behaviours in the face of considerable change to the sensory environment.
感觉可塑性是指个体通过提高另一种感觉的表现来补偿一种感觉的缺失，这是自然界中一个有充分记录的现象。尽管如此，感觉可塑性的行为和生态后果尚未得到解决。在这里，我们通过实验表明，孔雀鱼的感觉系统的一些组成部分（视觉和化学感受）具有发育可塑性，这种可塑性对觅食行为有重要影响。在低光照条件下饲养的孔雀鱼对单独遇到的化学食物线索的反应明显强于在较高光照水平下饲养的鱼。相反，它们对仅视觉线索的反应较弱。当视觉和嗅觉/味觉线索同时呈现时，在不同光照强度下饲养的鱼的反应强度没有差异。我们的数据表明，孔雀鱼可以通过从视觉到嗅觉/味觉的感觉转换来补偿视觉不佳、低光照环境的体验。这种从视觉到化学感觉的转变可能使个体能够进行觅食行为，这对它们在视觉不佳的环境中的生存至关重要。考虑到人为改变生态系统的频率不断增加，这些考虑尤其重要。我们的研究表明，代偿性表型可塑性可能提供了一个迄今为止尚未被考虑的缓冲区，使动物能够在感觉环境发生巨大变化的情况下进行基本行为。
