Lannoo Michael J, Stiles Rochelle M
Department of Anatomy, Cell Biology, and Physiology, Indiana University School of Medicine, Rm 135 Holmstedt Hall-ISU, Terre Haute, IN 47809, USA.
San Francisco Zoological Society, 1 Zoo Road, San Francisco, CA 94132, USA.
Animals (Basel). 2025 Mar 4;15(5):736. doi: 10.3390/ani15050736.
Amphibian conservation concerns frequently center on the idea of 'saving' them, with the underlying assumption they are the passive victims of anthropogenic environmental change. But this approach ignores the physiological, biochemical, and behavioral flexibility amphibians have employed since they first evolved ~365 million years ago. One overlooked advantage amphibians possess in the struggle for survival, and one humans might use in their efforts to conserve them, is their brains share the same blueprint as human brains, which allows them to acquire knowledge and understanding through experiences-in other words, amphibians have cognitive capabilities that assist them in their effort to survive. Here, we use four examples from our work on the behavioral ecology of Crawfish Frogs () to form hypotheses about how cognition affects amphibian reaction to environmental and social change. The first two examples describe Crawfish Frog responses to seasonality and reproductive status, the third details their reaction to ecological disturbance, and the fourth describes how their response to the same stimulus changes with growth/age. In each example, we detail the neuronal circuitry thought to be involved and hypothesize the role of cognition. We propose that as one component of our fight to conserve amphibians, researchers should consider the full range of anatomical, physiological, biochemical, and behavioral features amphibians themselves employ in their defense, which are features responsible for their historical evolutionary success up until the Anthropocene. Further, we submit that acknowledging amphibians possess cognitive abilities can enrich interpretations of not only behavioral and ecological observations but also of neuroanatomical and neurophysiological results.
两栖动物保护问题通常集中在“拯救”它们的理念上，其潜在假设是它们是人为环境变化的被动受害者。但这种方法忽视了两栖动物自约3.65亿年前首次进化以来所采用的生理、生化和行为灵活性。两栖动物在生存斗争中拥有的一个被忽视的优势，也是人类在保护它们的努力中可能会利用的优势，是它们的大脑与人类大脑有着相同的蓝图，这使它们能够通过经验获得知识和理解——换句话说，两栖动物具有认知能力，有助于它们努力生存。在这里，我们用我们在小龙虾蛙行为生态学研究中的四个例子，来形成关于认知如何影响两栖动物对环境和社会变化反应的假设。前两个例子描述了小龙虾蛙对季节性和繁殖状态的反应，第三个详细说明了它们对生态干扰的反应，第四个描述了它们对相同刺激的反应如何随生长/年龄而变化。在每个例子中，我们详细说明了被认为涉及的神经回路，并假设了认知的作用。我们建议，作为我们保护两栖动物斗争的一个组成部分，研究人员应该考虑两栖动物自身在防御中所采用的解剖学、生理学、生化和行为特征的全部范围，这些特征是它们在人类世之前取得历史进化成功的原因。此外，我们认为承认两栖动物具有认知能力不仅可以丰富对行为和生态观察结果的解释，也可以丰富对神经解剖学和神经生理学结果的解释。
