Incubation environment impacts the social cognition of adult lizards. Issue 11 (22nd November 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Siviter, Harry; Deeming, D. Charles; van Giezen, M. F. T.; Wilkinson, Anna
• Is Part Of: Royal Society open science. Volume 4:Issue 11(2017)
• Publication Date: 2017-11-22
• Subjects: incubation -- lizard -- oviparous -- social cognition -- social learning -- gaze following; Science -- Periodicals; 500
• DOI: 10.1098/rsos.170742
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2054-5703

Abstract

Abstract : Recent work exploring the relationship between early environmental conditions and cognition has shown that incubation environment can influence both brain anatomy and performance in simple operant tasks in young lizards. It is currently unknown how it impacts other, potentially more sophisticated, cognitive processes. Social-cognitive abilities, such as gaze following and social learning, are thought to be highly adaptive as they provide a short-cut to acquiring new information. Here, we investigated whether egg incubation temperature influenced two aspects of social cognition, gaze following and social learning in adult reptiles ( Pogona vitticeps ). Incubation temperature did not influence the gaze following ability of the bearded dragons; however, lizards incubated at colder temperatures were quicker at learning a social task and faster at completing that task. These results are the first to show that egg incubation temperature influences the social cognitive abilities of an oviparous reptile species and that it does so differentially depending on the task. Further, the results show that the effect of incubation environment was not ephemeral but lasted long into adulthood. It could thus have potential long-term effects on fitness.