Ahmed Newaz I, Thompson Cole, Bolnick Daniel I, Stuart Yoel E
Department of Integrative Biology University of Texas at Austin Austin TX USA.
Department of Internal Medicine University of Texas-Southwestern Dallas TX USA.
Ecol Evol. 2017 Apr 4;7(10):3372-3380. doi: 10.1002/ece3.2918. eCollection 2017 May.
The Clever Foraging Hypothesis asserts that organisms living in a more spatially complex environment will have a greater neurological capacity for cognitive processes related to spatial memory, navigation, and foraging. Because the telencephalon is often associated with spatial memory and navigation tasks, this hypothesis predicts a positive association between telencephalon size and environmental complexity. The association between habitat complexity and brain size has been supported by comparative studies across multiple species but has not been widely studied at the within-species level. We tested for covariation between environmental complexity and neuroanatomy of threespine stickleback () collected from 15 pairs of lakes and their parapatric streams on Vancouver Island. In most pairs, neuroanatomy differed between the adjoining lake and stream populations. However, the magnitude and direction of this difference were inconsistent between watersheds and did not covary strongly with measures of within-site environmental heterogeneity. Overall, we find weak support for the Clever Foraging Hypothesis in our study.
聪明觅食假说认为，生活在空间更复杂环境中的生物在与空间记忆、导航和觅食相关的认知过程方面将具有更强的神经能力。由于端脑通常与空间记忆和导航任务相关联，该假说预测端脑大小与环境复杂性之间存在正相关。跨多个物种的比较研究支持了栖息地复杂性与脑大小之间的关联，但在物种内水平上尚未得到广泛研究。我们测试了从温哥华岛15对湖泊及其邻接的溪流中采集的三刺鱼（）的环境复杂性与神经解剖结构之间的协变关系。在大多数配对中，相邻湖泊和溪流种群的神经解剖结构有所不同。然而，这种差异的大小和方向在不同流域之间并不一致，并且与场内环境异质性的测量指标之间没有强烈的协变关系。总体而言，我们在研究中发现对聪明觅食假说的支持较弱。
