Pravosudov Vladimir V, Sonnenberg Benjamin R, Branch Carrie L, Heinen Virginia K, Welklin Joseph F, Semenov Georgy A, Taylor Scott A
Department of Biology, University of Nevada Reno, Reno, NV 89557, USA.
University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario N6A 5C2, Canada.
Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2025 Jun 26;380(1929):20240120. doi: 10.1098/rstb.2024.0120.
There is a tremendous amount of intra- and inter-specific variation in animal cognitive abilities, and understanding the evolutionary mechanisms generating such variation is an important issue in evolutionary biology. Here we review our research on spatial cognition in food-caching chickadees, which use spatial cognitive abilities to recover previously made food caches to survive harsh winters. This work ranges from comparing multiple populations along environmental gradients to investigating the causes and consequences of individual variation in spatial learning and memory abilities, to describing the genetic basis of such variation. Our data show that (i) chickadees in harsher environments have better spatial cognitive abilities and a larger hippocampus with more hippocampal neurons, with differences between populations persisting in common garden experiments; (ii) chickadees tested in the wild show extensive individual variation in their learning and memory abilities; (iii) this variation is highly heritable and has a genetic basis; and (iv) this variation is associated with significant differences in survival, lifespan and reproductive success. Overall, our data provide strong evidence that spatial cognitive abilities in food-caching chickadees are shaped by natural selection, which generates differences among populations living across heterogeneous environmental conditions.This article is part of the Theo Murphy meeting issue 'Selection shapes diverse animal minds'.
动物的认知能力在种内和种间存在着巨大差异，而理解产生这种差异的进化机制是进化生物学中的一个重要问题。在此，我们回顾我们对储存食物的山雀空间认知的研究，这些山雀利用空间认知能力找回之前储存的食物以度过严冬。这项工作涵盖了从沿着环境梯度比较多个种群，到研究空间学习和记忆能力个体差异的原因及后果，再到描述这种差异的遗传基础。我们的数据表明：（i）生活在更恶劣环境中的山雀具有更好的空间认知能力，海马体更大且海马神经元更多，在共同园实验中种群间的差异依然存在；（ii）在野外测试的山雀在学习和记忆能力上表现出广泛的个体差异；（iii）这种差异具有高度遗传性且有遗传基础；（iv）这种差异与生存、寿命和繁殖成功率的显著差异相关。总体而言，我们的数据提供了有力证据，表明储存食物的山雀的空间认知能力是由自然选择塑造的，自然选择在生活于不同环境条件下的种群间产生了差异。本文是西奥·墨菲会议议题“选择塑造多样的动物思维”的一部分。
