Social learning exploits the available auditory or visual cues

Nihaad Paraouty,Joey A. Charbonneau,Dan H. Sanes

doi:10.1038/s41598-020-71005-x

Nihaad Paraouty, Joey A. Charbonneau + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-71005-x

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Abstract

The ability to acquire a behavior can be facilitated by exposure to a conspecific demonstrator. Such social learning occurs under a range of conditions in nature. Here, we tested the idea that social learning can benefit from any available sensory cue, thereby permitting learning under different natural conditions. The ability of naïve gerbils to learn a sound discrimination task following 5 days of exposure adjacent to a demonstrator gerbil was tested in the presence or absence of visual cues. Naïve gerbils acquired the task significantly faster in either condition, as compared to controls. We also found that exposure to a demonstrator was more potent in facilitating learning, as compared to exposure to the sounds used to perform the discrimination task. Therefore, social learning was found to be flexible and equally efficient in the auditory or visual domains.

Highlights

The ability to acquire a behavior can be facilitated by exposure to a conspecific demonstrator
We first asked whether naïve gerbils could learn an auditory Go-Nogo task by observing a trained demonstrator gerbil perform
All demonstrator gerbils were trained by the experimenters to perform a Go-Nogo amplitude modulation (AM) discrimination task (n = 37; see “Methods”)

Summary

Introduction

The ability to acquire a behavior can be facilitated by exposure to a conspecific demonstrator Such social learning occurs under a range of conditions in nature. Filial imprinting involves many sensory and social c ues[38], but exposure to an auditory cue alone is sufficient to maintain or induce the b ehavior[39,40] It is uncertain whether visual and auditory information are interchangeable when animals learn an identical task in a social context. We showed that naïve observer gerbils can acquire a sound discrimination task significantly faster following 5 days of exposure with a performing demonstrator gerbil, as compared to separate controls for social and/or test cage exposure. These animals learned the task at a similar rate, suggesting that in the absence of visual information, gerbils can still capitalize on the remaining information to learn in a social context

Methods

Results

Conclusion