Abstract
Within populations, individual differences in behavioral and cognitive traits are dependent on the habitat and specific contexts, such as the presence of a predator or other risks. The ability to show variable responses to changing conditions can be of immense survival advantage to organisms. We studied individual differences in specific personality traits, such as boldness, exploration, and spatial ability, and the effect of these traits on learning ability and memory in the presence of a predatory threat, among wild caught zebrafish (Danio rerio). Under laboratory conditions, individuals were trained to perform a simple navigation task, and their performance, exploration, boldness traits were measured, along with learning and memory abilities under two contexts (i.e., in the presence and absence of a predator). Our results revealed that fish showed a clear decline in emergence time, exploration time, and feeding latency over trials, indicative of learning, and further tests for memory also showed memory retention. While the presence of a predator increased emergence time and latencies for navigating, indicating declines in boldness and exploration, these were found to be correlated to different personalities among the individuals and dependent on their sex. While females tended to be bolder and learned the spatial task faster, they showed lower memory retention abilities than males. Personality traits were also found to affect cognitive abilities among individuals. In general, the presence of a predator decreased performance latencies. However, bolder individuals were less affected and emerged more quickly from the refuge chamber than shy individuals. Our results point to the complex interplay of ecological context along with inherent correlations across personality traits that decide the overall personality and cognitive responses among individuals even within populations. These findings thus highlight the importance of an inclusive approach that combines personality and cognition studies for understanding variations within populations.
Highlights
Until recently, behavioral flexibility has been considered an advantageous trait, as it allows an organism to adapt to unexpected changes in its environment (Dingemanse and Réale, 2005)
We used wild zebrafish Danio rerio (Hamilton, 1822) to characterize personality traits, such as boldness, exploration, and spatial ability, and examine the effect of such personality traits on learning ability and memory in a spatial task when provided with a food reward
Since not much is known about the correlation between personality and cognitive ability in wild zebrafish (Danio rerio), our study investigates the underlying pattern, if any exists, between the two and, if so, whether that relationship persists for all individuals within a population
Summary
Behavioral flexibility has been considered an advantageous trait, as it allows an organism to adapt to unexpected changes in its environment (Dingemanse and Réale, 2005). Cognition in most organisms depends on environmental factors such as habitat complexity and predator presence and has a tendency to show usage dependent decline with aging (Dukas, 2004). Cognitive abilities such as learning and memory in organisms show individual variation (Rowe and Healy, 2014; LuconXiccato and Bisazza, 2017a). Fish were grouped into better and worse navigators by ranking the time taken to traverse the maze and feed on day 1, as done with boldness and exploration measures
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