School of Biological Sciences, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia
School of Biological Sciences, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia.
Biol Lett. 2018 Apr;14(4). doi: 10.1098/rsbl.2017.0556.
Stressful conditions experienced during early development can have deleterious effects on offspring morphology, physiology and behaviour. However, few studies have examined how developmental stress influences an individual's cognitive phenotype. Using a viviparous lizard, we show that the availability of food resources to a mother during gestation influences a key component of her offspring's cognitive phenotype: their decision-making. Offspring from females who experienced low resource availability during gestation did better in an anti-predatory task that relied on spatial associations to guide their decisions, whereas offspring from females who experienced high resource availability during gestation did better in a foraging task that relied on colour associations to inform their decisions. This shows that the prenatal environment can influence decision-making in animals, a cognitive trait with functional implications later in life.
早期发育过程中经历的压力条件会对后代的形态、生理和行为产生有害影响。然而，很少有研究探讨发育压力如何影响个体的认知表现型。我们使用一种胎生蜥蜴表明，母亲在怀孕期间获得的食物资源会影响其后代认知表现型的一个关键组成部分：决策能力。在依赖空间关联来指导决策的反捕食任务中，来自在怀孕期间经历低资源可用性的雌性的后代表现更好，而在依赖颜色关联来告知其决策的觅食任务中，来自在怀孕期间经历高资源可用性的雌性的后代表现更好。这表明，产前环境可以影响动物的决策能力，这是一种对后期生活具有功能意义的认知特征。
