Seasonal variation in reversal learning reveals greater female cognitive flexibility in African striped mice

Abstract

Cognitive flexibility describes the ability of animals to alter cognitively mediated behaviour in response to changing situational demands, and can vary according to prevailing environemental conditions and individual caracteristics. In the present study, we investigated (1) how learning and reversal learning performance changes between seasons, and (2) how cognitive flexibility is related to sex in a free-living small mammal. We studied 107 African striped mice, Rhabdomys pumilio, in an arid semi-desert, 58 during the hot dry summer with low food availability, and 49 during the cold wet winter with higher food availability. We used an escape box task to test for learning and reversal learning performance. We found that learning and reversal learning efficiency varied seasonally by sex: females tested in summer were faster at solving both learning and reversal tasks than males tested in winter. Performance varied within sex: males tested in winter showed faster learning compared to males tested in summer. During reversal learning, females tested in summer were more efficient and solve the task faster compared to females tested in winter. We suggest that seasonal cognitive performance could be related to sex-specific behavioural characteristics of the species, resulting in adaptation for living in harsh environmental conditions.