Collard Mason, Pardo-Sanchez Juanita, Tibbetts Elizabeth A
Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA.
Behav Ecol Sociobiol. 2024 Nov;78(11). doi: 10.1007/s00265-024-03527-7. Epub 2024 Oct 21.
Social isolation often has lasting negative effects on social behavior, but less research has tested how the timing of isolation influences its effects. Some behaviors have a sensitive period where experience has particularly strong effects, while other behaviors are more flexible. Here, we test how the timing of social experience influences the development of individual face learning in wasps. Individual face recognition is a key aspect of communication in wasps, so wasps reared in a typical environment are adept at individual face learning. We reared wasps in 5 treatments that differed in the timing and amount of social experience: 14 days isolation, 14 days nest, 7 days nest, 7 days nest then 7 days isolation, and 7 days isolation then 7 days nest. Then, we tested individual face learning. Experience with conspecifics improved individual face learning, but the timing of experience did not impact performance. Wasps reared in normal social environments were adept at learning and remembering faces, while isolated wasps were unable to learn and remember faces. Early isolation did not have a stronger effect than later isolation, indicating that there is no early sensitive period for face learning in paper wasps. Instead, paper wasps exhibit a high level of plasticity in the development of individual face learning. Overall, this work emphasizes the role of plasticity in the development of complex social recognition and offers insight into the conditions where evolution favors high plasticity over rigid sensitive periods in development.
社会隔离通常会对社会行为产生持久的负面影响，但较少有研究测试隔离的时间如何影响其效果。有些行为存在敏感期，在这个时期经验会产生特别强烈的影响，而其他行为则更具灵活性。在这里，我们测试社会经验的时间如何影响黄蜂个体面部学习的发展。个体面部识别是黄蜂交流的一个关键方面，所以在典型环境中饲养的黄蜂擅长个体面部学习。我们将黄蜂饲养在5种处理方式中，这些处理方式在社会经验的时间和数量上有所不同：14天隔离、14天在蜂巢、7天在蜂巢、7天在蜂巢然后7天隔离、7天隔离然后7天在蜂巢。然后，我们测试个体面部学习。与同种个体的经验改善了个体面部学习，但经验的时间并未影响表现。在正常社会环境中饲养的黄蜂擅长学习和记忆面孔，而隔离的黄蜂则无法学习和记忆面孔。早期隔离并不比后期隔离有更强的影响，这表明纸黄蜂面部学习不存在早期敏感期。相反，纸黄蜂在个体面部学习的发展中表现出高度的可塑性。总体而言，这项工作强调了可塑性在复杂社会识别发展中的作用，并深入了解了进化在何种条件下更倾向于发展中的高可塑性而非严格的敏感期。
