Journal
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Volume 111, Issue 32, Pages 11750-11755Publisher
NATL ACAD SCIENCES
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1404176111
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Funding
- Frank McKinney fellowship, Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior, the Graduate School, and the Center for Cognitive Sciences at the University of Minnesota [NIH T32 HD007151]
- Center for Insect Science at the University of Arizona [NIH 2 K12 GM000708]
- National Science Foundation [NSF IOS-1021183]
- Division Of Integrative Organismal Systems
- Direct For Biological Sciences [1021183] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
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Animals learn some things more easily than others. To explain this so-called prepared learning, investigators commonly appeal to the evolutionary history of stimulus-consequence relationships experienced by a population or species. We offer a simple model that formalizes this long-standing hypothesis. The key variable in our model is the statistical reliability of the association between stimulus, action, and consequence. We use experimental evolution to test this hypothesis in populations of Drosophila. We systematically manipulated the reliability of two types of experience (the pairing of the aversive chemical quinine with color or with odor). Following 40 generations of evolution, data from learning assays support our basic prediction: Changes in learning abilities track the reliability of associations during a population's selective history. In populations where, for example, quinine-color pairings were unreliable but quinine-odor pairings were reliable, we find increased sensitivity to learning the quinine-odor experience and reduced sensitivity to learning quinine-color. To the best of our knowledge this is the first experimental demonstration of the evolution of prepared learning.
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