Hatching asynchrony impacts cognition in male zebra finches

Abstract

Conditions experienced early in life can shape brain development and later cognition. Altricial songbirds are particularly vulnerable to early environmental perturbations. Research on "Developmental Stress" in songbirds has addressed how early-life conditions may impair song learning and has been extended to consider other components of adult phenotype. Early-life challenges ranging from ectoparasites to competition with siblings have been shown to compromise song learning and other measures of cognition, as well as behavioral strategy. Here, we examined both the effects of hatching asynchrony and early-life immune system challenge with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) on neophobia, song learning, motoric learning, and spatial cognition in male zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata). We found that hatch order had a significant impact on motoric and spatial learning, such that later hatched males performed better than first and second hatched birds. In contrast, LPS treatment only impacted motoric learning and neither hatch order nor immune system challenge impacted song quality, song learning accuracy, or neophobia. These results are consistent with a growing body of evidence that conditions early in life can improve cognitive performance at adulthood. Moreover, these findings indicate that hatch order is an important factor to consider in developmental studies in asynchronously hatching birds.