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Individual variation in cognition, seen in many taxa, is not well understood, despite its potential evolutionary consequences. Inhibitory control is an aspect of cognition which differs between individuals. However, how selection could act on this variation remains unclear. First, individual consistency over time of behaviours affected by inhibitory control, and how these behaviours relate to each other, is not well understood. Second, consequences in ecologically relevant contexts of variation in behaviours affected by inhibitory control, are scarcely investigated. Therefore, we explored the temporal consistency and inter-relatedness of two behaviours influenced by inhibitory control (impulsive action and persistence) and how these link to social rank, foraging efficiency, and risk taking in adult female red junglefowl (Gallus gallus). We measured impulsive action in a detour test, and persistence in both a detour test and a foraging test. Impulsive action and persistence, measured in a detour test, were moderately consistent over time, and positively correlated. This implies that selection could act on inhibitory control via these behaviours, and selection on one behaviour could affect the other. However, we found no evidence of links between inhibitory control and social rank, foraging efficiency, or risk taking. This implies that selection may not act on inhibitory control via these measures, and that, in general, there may be a lack of strong selection on inhibitory control. This, in turn, could help explain individual variation in this aspect of cognition. Future research should explore the specificity of when inhibitory control has implications for individuals, and continue to investigate how variation in cognitive traits influences how individuals behave in contexts with potential evolutionary implications. 

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Variation in inhibitory control does not influence social rank, foraging efficiency, or risk taking, in red junglefowl females

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2022.02.007

Inhibitory control performance is repeatable over time and across contexts in a wild bird population

The Sixth Assessment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change describes negative effects of climate change on animals occurring on a larger scale than previously appreciated. Animal species are increasingly experiencing more frequent and extreme weather in comparison with conditions in which the species evolved. Individual variation in behavioural and physiological responses of animals to stimuli from the environment is ubiquitous across all species. Populations with relatively high levels of individual variation are more likely to be able to survive in a range of environmental conditions and cope with climate change than populations with low levels of variation. Behavioural and physiological responses are linked in animals, and personality can be defined as consistent individual behavioural and physiological responses of animals to changes in their immediate environment. Glucocorticoids (cortisol and corticosterone) are hormones that, in addition to metabolic roles, are released when the neuroendocrine stress system is activated in response to stimuli from the environment perceived to be threatening. The size of a glucocorticoid response of an animal is an indication of the animal’s personality. Animals with reactive personalities have relatively high glucocorticoid responses, are relatively slow and thorough to explore new situations, and are more flexible and able to cope with changing or unpredictable conditions than animals with proactive personalities. Animals with reactive personalities are likely to be better able to cope with environmental changes due to climate change than animals with proactive personalities. A reaction norm shows the relationship between phenotype and environmental conditions, with the slope of a reaction norm for an individual animal a measure of phenotypic plasticity. If reaction norm slopes are not parallel, there is individual variation in plasticity. Populations with relatively high individual variation in plasticity of reaction norms will have more animals that can adjust to a new situation than populations with little variation in plasticity, so are more likely to persist as environments change due to climate change. Future studies of individual variation in plasticity of responses to changing environments will help understanding of how populations of animals may be able to cope with climate change.

Individual variation, personality, and the ability of animals to cope with climate change

Inhibitory control is one of several cognitive mechanisms required for self-regulation, decision making and attention towards tasks. Linked to a variety of maladaptive behaviours in humans, inhibitory control is expected to influence behavioural plasticity in animals in the context of foraging, social interaction, or responses to sudden changes in the environment. One widely used cognitive assay, the detour task, putatively tests inhibitory control. In this task, subjects must avoid impulsively touching transparent barriers positioned in front of food, and instead access the food by an alternative but known route. Recently it has been suggested that the detour task is unreliable and measures factors unrelated to inhibitory control, including motivation, previous experience and persistence. Consequently, there is growing uncertainty as to whether this task leads to erroneous interpretations about animal cognition and its links with socio-ecological traits. To address these outstanding concerns, we designed a variant of the detour task for wild great tits (Parus major) and deployed it at the nesting site of the same individuals across two spring seasons. This approach eliminated the use of food rewards, limited social confounds, and maximised motivation. We compared task performance in the wild with their performance in captivity when tested using the classical cylinder detour task during the non-breeding season. Task performance was temporally and contextually repeatable, and none of the confounds had any significant effect on performance, nor did they drive any of the observed repeatable differences among individuals. These results support the hypothesis that our assays captured intrinsic differences in inhibitory control. Instead of throwing the detour task out with the bathwater, we suggest confounds are likely system and experimental-design specific, and that assays for this potentially fundamental but largely overlooked source of behavioural plasticity in animal populations, should be validated and refined for each study system.

https://www.biorxiv.org/content/biorxiv/early/2021/07/15/2021.07.15.452478.full.pdf

Inhibitory control performance is repeatable across years and contexts in a wild bird population

Funder: FP7 Ideas: European Research Council; Id: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/100011199; Grant(s): FP7/2007‐2013

https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/8725028/file/8725029.pdf

Inhibitory control, exploration behaviour and manipulated ecological context are associated with foraging flexibility in the great tit.

O_LIOrganisms are consistently under selection to respond effectively to a diversity of, sometimes rapid, changes in their environment. Behavioural plasticity can allow individuals to do so instantaneously, but why individuals vary in this respect is poorly understood. Although personality and cognitive traits are often hypothesised to influence plasticity, the effects reported are highly inconsistent, which we hypothesise is because ecological context is usually not considered. C_LIO_LIHere we explore the roles of individual cognitive and personality variation - assayed using standard tasks for inhibitory control, a measure of self-control, and reactive-proactive personality axis (RPPA), respectively - in driving foraging plasticity, and asked how these effects varied across two experimentally manipulated ecological contexts: food value and predation risk. C_LIO_LIAfter great tits (Parus major) had initially been trained to retrieve high value food hidden in sand, they were then simultaneously offered the hidden food and an alternative food choice on the surface, that was either high or low value. Their choices were further examined under high and low perceived predation risk treatments. Individuals choices were classified in terms of whether they continued to forage on the hidden but familiar food source, or instead switched to the new visible food source. We defined the latter option as the plastic response. C_LIO_LIOur assays captured consistent differences among individuals in foraging behaviour. Both inhibitory control and exploration influenced whether birds switched from the familiar but hidden food source to the new alternative visible food on the surface. These effects depended on the relative value of the food items available and on the perceived level of predation risk, but also on the time scale over which the response was measured. C_LIO_LIOur results demonstrate how an executive cognitive function and one specific personality axis can simultaneously influence plasticity in a key functional behaviour. That their effects on foraging were primarily observed as interactions with food value or predation risk treatments also suggest that the population level consequences of behavioural mechanisms, such as these, may only be revealed across key ecological conditions or gradients. C_LI

https://www.biorxiv.org/content/biorxiv/early/2020/12/16/2020.12.16.423008.full.pdf

Jenny R. Coomes

Papers

Inhibitory control, exploration behaviour and manipulated ecological context are associated with foraging flexibility in the great tit.

Inhibitory control, personality, and manipulated ecological conditions influence foraging plasticity in the great tit