Abstract
At the individual level, to be behaviourally lateralized avoids costly duplication of neural circuitry and decreases possible contradictory order from the two brain hemispheres. However, being prey behaviour lateralized at higher hierarchical levels could generate different negative implications, especially if predators are able to make predictions after multiple encounters. These conflicting pressures, namely between the advantages for individuals and the disadvantages for populations could be concealed if higher-level lateralization would arise from the combination of lateralized behaviours of individuals which are mutually dependent. Here, we investigated the lateralization patterns in the escape behaviour of the gecko Tarentola angustimentalis undergoing a predatory attack simulation in a “T” maze experiment. Results showed that gecko populations displayed different degrees of lateralization, with an overall dominance of right-biased individuals. This trend is similar to that observed in the Podarcis wall lizards, which share predators with Tarentola. In addition, different morphological parameters plausible to affect refuge selection were explored in order to link directional asymmetries at morphological level with lateralization during refuge selection.
Highlights
Brain lateralization has been explained in terms of avoidance of costly duplication of neural circuitry with the same function and decrease interference between different functions [1]
We investigated the patterns of lateralization in five populations of T. angustimentalis inhabiting different habitats with the aim of analysing the occurrence of lateralized escape behaviour at different hierarchical levels, from individuals to the species level
Our results show that escape behaviour differed in the refuge side preferences between populations of the same gecko species
Summary
Brain lateralization has been explained in terms of avoidance of costly duplication of neural circuitry with the same function and decrease interference between different functions [1]. This could have crucial implications in terms of predator-prey interactions. Following Brown et al [4], the side of the behavioural bias could be fixed independently for every species because side is of secondary importance regarding the existence of functional specialization between the two brain hemispheres [5,6] This is due to the benefits associated with cerebral lateralization that are effective, regardless the directional bias at the individual level, but crucial at the population level [7]. If preys are lateralized at a higher hierarchical level (population or species), predators could take advantage from earlier encounters with members of the same prey species and predict individual prey behaviour [7,8]
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