Neophobic Response Research Articles

Effect of hippocampal 6-OHDA lesions on the contextual modulation of taste recognition memory

Taste recognition memory is evident in rodents because the initial neophobia to novel tastes attenuates across exposures as the taste becomes familiar and safe. This attenuation of taste neophobia (AN) is context-dependent and an auditory background change could induce the recovery of the neophobic response. The AN auditory context-dependency requires the hippocampal integrity but the neurochemical mechanisms underlying the interaction with the taste memory circuit remain unexplored. We have applied pharmacological intervention by 6-hidroxydopamine (6-OHDA) hippocampal lesion for assessing the role of catecholamines in the hippocampal system to Wistar rats that drank a novel 3% vinegar solution for several consecutive days. Additionally, we manipulated the auditory background as a context that could either change or remain constant across all the drinking sessions. We found that a disruption of the context-dependent AN was induced by intracerebral administration of 6-OHDA targeted to the ventral CA1 hippocampus (vCA1). We conclude that the ability of the auditory context to modulate taste recognition memory involves the catecholaminergic activity in the ventral hippocampal circuit for the proper acquisition of safe taste memory.

Chronic stress reverses enhanced neophobia following an acute stressor in European starlings.

Neophobia is an animal's avoidance of novelty. Animals tend to respond to novel objects by increasing their latency to approach the objects, and they eventually habituate after repeated exposure by attenuating this increased approach latency. Interestingly, the physiological stress response does not appear to have a causal link to neophobia, although acute stress can prevent animals from habituating to novel objects, possibly through a permissive effect. Chronic stress can induce an anxiety-like state in animals, while often disrupting the ability to respond to acute stress. We thus hypothesized that chronic stress may increase neophobia and tested this by inducing chronic stress in wild-caught European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris). Four distinct anthropogenic stressors were administered daily for 30 min each in a randomized order for 21 days. We then evaluated whether exposure to chronic stress altered the latency to approach a novel object placed on or near a food dish presented after overnight fasting. Chronically stressed birds and nonstressed controls exhibited similar initial neophobic responses to novel objects and showed similar habituation in response to repeated exposure. However, when birds were exposed to 15 min of restraint before repeated exposure to the same object, habituation was eliminated in control birds (i.e., they continued to respond with neophobia), whereas chronically stressed birds continued to show habituation as measured by attenuated approach latencies. These results demonstrate that an acute stress response (restraint) has a different impact on neophobia depending upon whether the bird is or is not concurrently exposed to chronic stress.

Unpredictable risk enhances induced neophobia in northern red-bellied dace

Neophobia, the fear response of organisms towards novel cues, is a phenotypically plastic trait that manifests among prey that experience uncertain, often high levels of risk. Prey that find themselves in uncertain or highly variable risk environments over ecological and evolutionary time could benefit from reducing the costs associated with ‘making a bad decision’ when they detect novel or unknown predatory threat. Hence, understanding ecological uncertainty in the context of prey decision making is of key interest. While ecological uncertainty remains a poorly defined concept, the degree of uncertainty experienced by prey, and by extension neophobia, should be influenced by the predictability of risk. Here, we test whether prey exposed to the same overall level of predation risk exhibit stronger neophobic responses towards a standardized novel cue when they experience the risk in an unpredictable versus predicable manner. Northern red-bellied dace, Chrosomus eos, exposed to conspecific alarm cues (risk cue) over a 3-day period exhibited a stronger intensity of neophobia than those exposed to low-level risk. However, if the alarm cues were presented as three exposures ranging in volume, the dace exhibited stronger neophobic responses compared to dace exposed to three equal exposures per day. Similarly, our second experiment showed that dace exposed over 3 days to elevated risk at random versus consistent times each day had stronger neophobic response under the random schedule. Combined, our results demonstrate that the degree of predictability of risk is a critical factor determining uncertainty and neophobia exhibited by prey populations.

Accumbens and amygdala in taste recognition memory: The role of d1 dopamine receptors

The attenuation of taste neophobia (AN) is a good model for studying the structural and neurochemical mechanisms of the emotional component of memory because taste recognition memory exhibits the unique feature of being necessarily linked to hedonic properties. Whilst novel tastes elicit cautious neophobic responses, taste exposures which are not followed by aversive consequences attenuate neophobia as the taste becomes safe and palatable. Given the involvement of the nucleus accumbens in reward and of the amygdala in emotional memories, we applied c-Fos immunohistochemistry as an index of neural activity in Wistar rats that were exposed to a vinegar solution for one, two or six days. An inverse pattern of accumbens nucleus vs amygdala activity was found on the second exposure day on which AN occurred. The number of c-Fos positive cells in the nucleus accumbens shell increased whilst the number of c-Fos positive cells in the basolateral amygdala decreased. Further analyses revealed a positive correlation between AN and the number of c-Fos positive cells in the accumbens shell but a negative correlation in the basolateral amygdala. Furthermore the accumbens-amygdala interplay relevant for AN seems to be mediated by dopamine D1 receptors (D1DR). The injection of SCH23390 (D1DR antagonist) in both the accumbens shell and the basolateral amygdala on the second taste exposure resulted in selectively impaired AN but had opposite long term effects. This finding supports the relevance of a dopaminergic network mediated by D1DRs in the nucleus accumbens shell and basolateral amygdala which is critical for adding the emotional component during the formation of taste memory.

Temporally variable predation risk and fear retention in Trinidadian guppies

Abstract Predation fear is a unifying theme across vertebrate taxa. Here, we explored how the frequency and duration of predation risk affects postrisk fear behavior in Trinidadian guppies. We first exposed individuals to visual cues of potential predators for 3 days, either frequently (6×/day) or infrequently (1×/day). Each exposure lasted for either a relatively brief (5 min) or long (30 min) duration, whereas a control group consisted of no risk exposures. One day later, we quantified guppy behavior. All background risk treatments induced a fear response toward a novel odor (i.e., neophobia), and individuals previously exposed to frequent bouts of brief risk showed elevated baseline fear. Although neophobic responses were initially similar across risk treatments (1 day later), retention of this response differed. After 8 days, only individuals previously exposed to brief bouts of risk (both frequent and infrequent) maintained neophobic responses, whereas their initially higher level of baseline fear remained elevated but was no longer significantly different from the control. These results increase our understanding of temporal factors that affect the intensity and retention of fear that persists after risk exposure, which may have applications across vertebrates in relation to problems with fearful phenotypes.

Improvement of APOE4-dependent non-cognitive behavioural traits by postnatal cholinergic stimulation in female mice

The apolipoprotein E (APOE) ε4 allele hastens cognitive decline, but other non-cognitive behaviours, as well as underpinning interactions with the cholinergic system, have not been systematically addressed. Both C57BL/6 and humanised apoE4 female mice were transiently exposed to subclinical doses (0 or 1 mg/kg body weight) of the cholinesterase inhibitor chlorpyrifos (CPF), a widely-used pesticide, from postnatal days 10–15. At 5 months of age, we assessed the impact of APOE4 genotype, postnatal CPF exposure and APOE4 x CPF interactions on anxiety (open field and light-dark tests), stereotypes (digging test) and neophobia (sucrose preference test), as well as on high-fat diet (HFD)-seeking and consumption (scheduled-feeding paradigm). We found that control APOE4 female carriers displayed a robust anxiety-like phenotype, which was accompanied by exaggerated stereotypes and a subtle neophobic response to rewarding foods. In parallel, we observed an amplified “wanting” response for HFD in these mice, which did not entail enhanced “liking”. Notably, postnatal CPF ameliorated the anxiety-like and the heightened HFD-seeking responses in adult apoE4 female mice, while caused them to gain weight steadily compared to control peers. In turn, an early-life transient exposure to CPF fostered the over-consumption of HFD during adulthood without affecting how much this reward was “wanted” or the total caloric intake. These data reveal a role for CPF towards fostering “unhealthy” dietary choices. We conclude that the APOE4 genotype modulates non-cognitive behaviours and we provide support for an APOE4-dependent cholinergic dysfunction.

Prior restraint stress inhibits habituation to novel objects in the European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris).

Animals often avoid novel objects, a behavior known as neophobia. We examined behavioral responses of captive European starlings to novel objects placed at their food dishes. Exposure occurred concurrently to food reintroduction following overnight fasting. Behavior was analyzed for 10 min via video recording. We expected an increase in avoidance behavior compared with trials in which food was reintroduced without a novel object. Seven of 10 novel objects increased latency to approach the dish. In contrast to our expectations, neither prior restraint nor exogenous corticosterone changed the neophobic response to novel objects. While exposure to a novel object increased approach latency, there was no additional effect of restraining animals in a cloth bag for 15 min before food reintroduction. Furthermore, the subcutaneous injection of corticosterone did not affect approach latency by itself, nor did it affect the response to a novel object. Finally, we expected repeated exposure to the same object to extinguishing the neophobic response, and that restraint stress would prevent habituation. Our results show that European starlings habituate rapidly to exposure to a novel object, as approach latency returned to baseline within three repeated exposures to the same object. When the repeated presentation of the object was combined with prior restraint, however, the latency to approach never returned to baseline. These results reveal that neophobia in starlings is object-specific and that, while neither acute stress nor corticosterone directly affects the behavioral response to a novel object, acute stress appears to have a permissive effect on neophobia by inhibiting habituation.

Reactions to novel objects in monkeys: what does it mean to be neophobic?

Animals' reactions to novel objects vary not only with zoological taxa and their ecology but also in the types of presented stimuli, the context, and individual characteristics. Behavioral reactions can vary from extremely neophobic (avoiding novel objects) to extremely neophilic (intense exploration of novel objects); most often, a mixture of these behavioral patterns appears. In primates, reactions toward novel objects vary according to species, age, sex, population, and the types of objects. Most experiments in this field have used a free exploration design with food or non-food objects. Here, we tested the reactions of captive male rhesus macaques using various stimuli, motivation levels, rewards, and time limits. We found that the monkeys explored and manipulated novel objects in various contexts, with little evidence of a neophobic response; however, environment, types of stimuli, and other parameters of the test can significantly affect monkeys' reactions.

Who’s where? Ecological uncertainty shapes neophobic predator avoidance in Trinidadian guppies

Neophobic predator avoidance (NPA), the fear response exhibited by prey animals exposed to novel stimuli, is a plastic trait thought to be induced by exposure to elevated chronic risk of predation. Indeed, prey experiencing low levels of background risk fail to display NPA, while those experiencing high background risk do display NPA. Recent work has suggested that the trigger for inducing and maintaining NPA may not be background risk per se but rather uncertainty in the predation environment. Here, we designed two experiments on wild-caught neophobic Trinidadian guppies (Poecilia reticulata) to test the ‘uncertainty hypothesis’. In the first experiment, we tested if the diversity of novel stimuli encountered by guppies would affect the maintenance of their NPA. We found that exposure to a single novel odour once per day for 3 days was sufficient to extinguish the neophobic response to that odour (Experiment 1A) but not a new odour (Experiment 1B). However, when guppies were exposed to multiple novel odours so that each odour was encountered once a day for 3 days, they retained their NPA to both a previously encountered novel odour (Experiment 1A) and a new odour (Experiment 1B). In our second experiment, we repeatedly exposed guppies to a novel cue in a spatially predictable vs. unpredictable location and found that spatial unpredictability interfered with the reduction of NPA to that cue. Combined, our results suggest that uncertainty of risk experienced by prey in time and space shapes the retention of NPA. When prey face uncertainty, or lack of complete information, about risk in their environment, they engage in adaptive antipredator behaviours such as neophobic predator avoidance. Showing a fear response to a novel stimulus in a high-risk environment is likely adaptive if we assume that most species in that environment are threats. Here, we aim to show how uncertainty, as opposed to simply background levels of risk, may influence the maintenance of neophobic responses in prey. On the basis of two experiments, we showed that prey experiencing increased uncertainty, via increased diversity and spatial unpredictability of novel cues, maintain their neophobic responses more so than prey experiencing lower uncertainty. Understanding the effects of ecological uncertainty on prey behaviour, particularly neophobia, will shed light on how prey might respond as uncertainty increases with climate change, invasive species and anthropogenic habitat modification.

Novelty Response of Wild African Apes to Camera Traps

Temperament and personality research in humans and nonhuman animals measures behavioral variation in individual, population, or species-specific traits with implications for survival and fitness, suchas social status, foraging, and mating success [1-5]. Curiosity and risk-taking tendencies have been studied extensively across taxa by measuring boldness and exploration responses to experimental novelty exposure [3, 4, 6-15]. Here, we conduct a natural field experiment using wildlife monitoring technology to test variation in the reaction of wild great apes (43 groups of naive chimpanzees, bonobos, and western gorillas across 14 field sites in Africa) to a novel object, the camera trap. Bonobo and gorilla groups demonstrated a stronger looking impulse toward the camera trap device compared to chimpanzees, suggesting higher visual attention and curiosity. Bonobos were also more likely to show alarm and other fearful behaviors, although such neophobic (and conversely, neophilic) responses were generally rare. Among all three species, individuals looked at cameras longer when they were young, were associating with fewer individuals, and did not live near a long-term research site. Overall, these findings partially validate results from great ape novelty paradigms in captivity [7, 8]. We further suggest that species-typical leadership styles [16] and social and environmental effects, including familiarity with humans, best explain novelty responses of wild great apes. In sum, this study illustrates the feasibility of large-scale field experiments and the importance of both intrinsic and extrinsic factors in shaping animal curiosity. VIDEO ABSTRACT.

Evaluación de neofobia en un rebaño de gamos en cautividad

La neofobia es un comportamiento ecológicamente relevante que surge a través de una evaluación cognitiva de estímulos novedosos. Evaluamos las respuestas de 8 gamos en cautividad, utilizando una prueba de reacción frente a objetos nobeles y una escala de evaluación cualitativa del comportamiento. El análisis de componentes principales categóricos reveló que la variabilidad presente en la población para la prueba de neofobia explicaba el 69,94% de la varianza encontrada en el rebaño estudiado. Se detectó que las variables estaban desde pobremente correlacionadas hasta altamente correlacionadas, tanto positiva como negativamente. Las correlaciones negativas entre las variables medidas variaron desde -0.005 (entre el tiempo que el animal está distraído y la edad) hasta -0.912 (entre la edad y la jerarquía), y los positivos desde 0.005 (entre el tiempo de aproximación hasta un metro y la edad) hasta 0.831 (entre el tiempo que el animal está distraído y el tiempo que el animal se toma para prestar atención, pero permanece inmóvil). Estos hallazgos resaltan la naturaleza de las respuestas neofóbicas en ungulados bajo cautiverio y cómo la estructura social las afecta.

Practical ways to best support picky eaters

The refusal of food is thought to link to an in-built survival mechanism, the neophobic response. This is thought to be an evolutionary response that developed among our ancestors. What can we do to help?

Can information positively influence familiarity and acceptance of a novel ethnic food? A case study of Korean traditional foods for Malaysian consumers

AbstractOwing to consumers' neophobic responses, successfully launching an ethnic food onto a foreign market is challenging. Information may increase the liking of an ethnic food by decreasing uncertainty about it. This study investigated whether information influences Malaysian consumers' acceptance of and familiarity with Korean ethnic food. Two traditional Korean noodle products were evaluated by 212 Malaysian consumers with different levels of prior experience with Korean food. Familiarity and overall liking were assessed in blind and informed settings. The results showed that previous experience, not information, significantly increased consumer acceptance and familiarity. Information moderated the effect of previous experience, increasing the liking of and familiarity with the ethnic food among frequent consumers of Korean food, but decreasing them among infrequent users. It seems that previous experience helps consumers to form favorable expectations and to expect product performance close to the actual performance, resulting in an assimilation effect in the presence of information.Practical applicationsSuccessful market entry of an ethnic food requires a systematic approach based on understanding of consumers in a target country. This study presents results relevant to understanding of Asian consumers' liking and perception of ethnic foods. It was identified that information influenced liking by creating expectation rather than by familiarizing consumers, and also that the effect of information was moderated by personal experiences with cuisine of the country which the ethnic food product is originated from. Results of this study suggest that different strategies for delivering information, such as label and product description, should be developed according to the target consumers' level of experiences. Findings from the present study have implications for researchers and marketers in the ethnic food market with regard to presentation of information congruent to actual sensory performances to increase acceptance of an unfamiliar ethnic food.

Incubation temperature affects the expression of young precocial birds\u2019 fear-related behaviours and neuroendocrine correlates

The influence of embryonic microclimate on the behavioural development of birds remains unexplored. In this study, we experimentally tested whether chronic exposure to suboptimal temperatures engendered plasticity in the expression of fear-related behaviours and in the expression of the corticotropin-releasing factor in the brains of domestic chicks (Gallus g. domesticus). We compared the neurobehavioural phenotypes of a control group of chicks incubated in an optimal thermal environment (37.8 °C) with those of a group of experimental chicks exposed chronically in ovo to suboptimal temperatures (27.2 °C for 1 hour twice a day). Chronic exposure to a suboptimal temperature delayed hatching and decreased growth rate and experimental chicks had higher neophobic responses than controls in novel food and novel environment tests. In addition, experimental chicks showed higher expression of corticotropin-releasing factor than did controls in nuclei of the amygdala, a structure involved in the regulation of fear-related behaviours. In this study, we report the first evidence of the strong but underappreciated role of incubation microclimate on the development of birds’ behaviour and its neurobiological correlates.

Understanding the effect of uncertainty on the development of neophobic antipredator phenotypes

Exposure of prey animals to high background risk environments generates high-risk behavioural phenotypes characterized by prey that often display transient neophobic responses to novel stimuli. To manipulate background risk, researchers have most often used chemical alarm cues from injured conspecifics because these cues provide a general indication of a high-risk environment but no information regarding the identity of the source of the threat. Here, we hypothesized that the expression of neophobia (fear of unknown stimuli) may not be the result of elevated background risk per se, but rather the result of high uncertainty associated with the predation environment. Here we showed that woodfrog, Lithobates sylvaticus, tadpoles exposed to alarm cues alone for several days subsequently displayed neophobic phenotypes. The same was true for tadpoles exposed to alarm cues paired with the odour of a new novel predator each day for several days. However, tadpoles exposed to alarm cues paired with the same predator cue everyday did not develop the neophobic phenotype. This suggests that if the predator environment is certain (i.e. the alarm cue and predator cues always coincide), then the ratio of costs to benefits of neophobia is high and limits its expression. However, if the prey's uncertainty regarding the predator environment is high (i.e. the alarm cues are often associated with new unknown predators), then the potential survival benefits of expressing neophobia likely override the costs. The prey's perception of uncertainty may be a key driver of the expression of neophobic phenotypes.

Personality and the retention of neophobic predator avoidance in wild caught Trinidadian guppies

Abstract Neophobic predator avoidance allows prey to reduce the risk of predation but is costly in terms of reduced foraging or courtship opportunities if the novel cues do not represent an actual threat. Consequently, neophobic responses to novel cues should wane with repeated exposures in the absence of an actual threat. We tested the prediction that individual personality traits shape the retention of neophobic predator avoidance in wild-caught guppies. Using extinction trials, we demonstrate that personality (measured as latency to escape or approach a novel object) did not influence the initial response of wild-caught Trinidadian guppies to a novel odour; bolder and shyer guppies both exhibited similarly strong avoidance responses. However, after several exposures, shyer guppies maintain an avoidance response, and bolder guppies no longer respond. Our results highlight the complex nature of the antipredator algorithm of prey, whereby past experience, acute risk, and individual tactics shape neophobic predator avoidance patterns.

Patterns of predator neophobia: a meta-analytic review.

Neophobia, the fear of novel stimuli, plays a major role in animal ecology. Here, we review studies on predator neophobia and explore its underlying patterns within an ecological framework. Predator neophobia is typically assessed by observing behaviours in novel areas that bring potential risk from unknown predators, or by observing behaviours towards certain kinds of objects and odours that are novel. We conducted a literature review across taxa, surveying research on baseline and induced neophobia versus controls. We calculated effect sizes for the intensity of neophobic responses, and categorized data according to six factors (taxa, age class, background type, trophic position, test cue type and experimental treatment type). While accounting for each of the other factors, we found that baseline neophobia was stronger among birds and mammals, and towards novel areas, relative to other taxa and cue types. Baseline neophobia was lower for wild-caught animals and for those that were higher in trophic position, compared with those reared in captivity and from lower trophic levels. By contrast, induced neophobia was similar in intensity across taxa, background types and testing cue types, while again being lower among upper trophic-level members and among juvenile animals. Although induced neophobia occurred across all treatment types, brain lesions induced stronger neophobia than predation risk or social isolation. We discuss potential mechanisms underlying these results and highlight gaps in the literature.

Wild jackdaws’ reproductive success and their offspring’s stress hormones are connected to provisioning rate and brood size, not to parental neophobia

Many species show individual variation in neophobia and stress hormones, but the causes and consequences of this variation in the wild are unclear. Variation in neophobia levels could affect the number of offspring animals produce, and more subtly influence the rearing environment and offspring development. Nutritional deficits during development can elevate levels of stress hormones that trigger long-term effects on learning, memory, and survival. Therefore measuring offspring stress hormone levels, such as corticosterone (CORT), helps determine if parental neophobia influences the condition and developmental trajectory of young. As a highly neophobic species, jackdaws (Corvus monedula) are excellent for exploring the potential effects of parental neophobia on developing offspring. We investigated if neophobic responses, alongside known drivers of fitness, influence nest success and offspring hormone responses in wild breeding jackdaws. Despite its consistency across the breeding season, and suggestions in the literature that it should have importance for reproductive fitness, parental neophobia did not predict nest success, provisioning rates or offspring hormone levels. Instead, sibling competition and poor parental care contributed to natural variation in stress responses. Parents with lower provisioning rates fledged fewer chicks, chicks from larger broods had elevated baseline CORT levels, and chicks with later hatching dates showed higher stress-induced CORT levels. Since CORT levels may influence the expression of adult neophobia, variation in juvenile stress responses could explain the development and maintenance of neophobic variation within the adult population.

The influence of odour, taste and nutrients on feeding behaviour and food preferences in horses

While it has been established that nutrients and flavours (odour, taste) play an important role in diet selection by horses, previous studies have not always clarified what type of flavouring (e.g. non-nutritive or nutritive) was used. Therefore, the objective of this study was to determine the influence of distinct food characteristics (odour, taste, nutrients) on the preference of horses using different preference testing protocols. This experiment consisted of three phases; adaptation (P1), two-choice testing (P2) and multiple-choice testing using a chequerboard design (P3). Four pelleted diets equal in digestible energy, but contrasted in crude protein (LP; 14% and HP; 27%) and added non-caloric (natural) sweetener (i.e. LP, LP+, HP, HP+) were consecutively fed to each of sixteen adult horses. The diets were paired with four non-nutritive odours (coconut, banana, cinnamon, spearmint), with a unique odour and diet combination allocated to each group of four horses. In P1, each diet was presented solely for five days to facilitate pre- and post-ingestive associations; in P2 a two-choice test was conducted with four diet combinations (contrasts) over three days; and in P3 the four diets were presented simultaneously in a checkerboard fashion over a 5-day period. Feed intake, bucket/zone visits and time spent foraging or moving were recorded. The key findings of this study were: (1) In P1 an initially large variation in intake was recorded with only some horses showing a neophobic response to a new odour/food, but variation declined within 2days with the majority of the horses consuming over 90% of the diets. (2) Nutrient (HP) content appeared to be the main driver for diet intake in P2 (P<0.05) and P3 (P<0.001). (3) Taste appeared to be the secondary determinant of preference and this was more evident with the LP diet. (4) Consumption of diets linked to sweet aromatic odours (banana and coconut) was greater in P3 (P<0.001). (5) The multiple-choice test, which was designed to promote patch foraging behaviour, showed more explicit differences in diet ranking compared to the two-choice test. These findings confirm previous studies that horses prioritise diets on nutrients, but this is the first equine study that shows the positive influence of a non-caloric natural sweetener on diet choice. A non-nutritive sweet taste or odour appears to encourage diet intake by horses, but more research is needed that examines different sweeteners coupled with and without odour and/or dietary nutrients and its long-term effects on food intake.

Risk-induced neophobia: does sensory modality matter?

Recent studies have documented that exposure to high levels of background risk can induce neophobic predator avoidance in prey animals, whereby they respond to any novel cue with an anti-predator response. Such phenotypically plastic predator avoidance may allow prey to maximize anti-predator benefits in variable risk environments. It remains poorly understood whether risk assessment information from different sensory modalities can be integrated to induce generalized, cross-sensory system neophobic responses. Here, we directly test this hypothesis by exposing juvenile convict cichlids (Amatitlania nigrofasciata) to high- versus low-risk environments using either conspecific alarm cue (chemosensory risk) or a model avian predator (visual/mechanical risk) and testing their response to a novel chemosensory cue (Experiment 1) or visual cue (Experiment 2). Our results suggest that regardless of the sensory modality used to increased perceived risk, cichlids pre-exposed to high-risk conditions exhibited increased predator avoidance in response to any novel visual or chemical cue. As expected, cichlids pre-exposed to low-risk conditions did not display any neophobic responses. Our results suggest that induced neophobia is not cue specific; rather, it may function as a generalized response to perceived predation risk.