Great tits who remember more accurately have difficulty forgetting, but variation is not driven by environmental harshness

Abstract The causes of individual variation in memory are poorly understood in wild animals. Harsh environments with sparse or rapidly changing food resources are hypothesized to favour more accurate spatial memory to allow animals to return to previously visited patches when current patches are dep...

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Autores principales:	Ethan Hermer, Ben Murphy, Alexis S. Chaine, Julie Morand-Ferron
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Nature Portfolio 2021
Materias:	Medicine R Science Q
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/2b12e65afa05427ea92e2a9e69d526bc
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:2b12e65afa05427ea92e2a9e69d526bc2021-12-02T15:55:21ZGreat tits who remember more accurately have difficulty forgetting, but variation is not driven by environmental harshness10.1038/s41598-021-89125-32045-2322https://doaj.org/article/2b12e65afa05427ea92e2a9e69d526bc2021-05-01T00:00:00Zhttps://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-89125-3https://doaj.org/toc/2045-2322Abstract The causes of individual variation in memory are poorly understood in wild animals. Harsh environments with sparse or rapidly changing food resources are hypothesized to favour more accurate spatial memory to allow animals to return to previously visited patches when current patches are depleted. A potential cost of more accurate spatial memory is proactive interference, where accurate memories block the formation of new memories. This relationship between spatial memory, proactive interference, and harsh environments has only been studied in scatter-hoarding animals. We compare spatial memory accuracy and proactive interference performance of non-scatter hoarding great tits (Parus major) from high and low elevations where harshness increases with elevation. In contrast to studies of scatter-hoarders, we did not find a significant difference between high and low elevation birds in their spatial memory accuracy or proactive interference performance. Using a variance partitioning approach, we report the first among-individual trade-off between spatial memory and proactive interference, uncovering variation in memory at the individual level where selection may act. Although we have no evidence of harsh habitats affecting spatial memory, our results suggest that if elevation produced differences in spatial memory between elevations, we could see concurrent changes in how quickly birds can forget.Ethan HermerBen MurphyAlexis S. ChaineJulie Morand-FerronNature PortfolioarticleMedicineRScienceQENScientific Reports, Vol 11, Iss 1, Pp 1-11 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Medicine R Science Q
spellingShingle	Medicine R Science Q Ethan Hermer Ben Murphy Alexis S. Chaine Julie Morand-Ferron Great tits who remember more accurately have difficulty forgetting, but variation is not driven by environmental harshness
description	Abstract The causes of individual variation in memory are poorly understood in wild animals. Harsh environments with sparse or rapidly changing food resources are hypothesized to favour more accurate spatial memory to allow animals to return to previously visited patches when current patches are depleted. A potential cost of more accurate spatial memory is proactive interference, where accurate memories block the formation of new memories. This relationship between spatial memory, proactive interference, and harsh environments has only been studied in scatter-hoarding animals. We compare spatial memory accuracy and proactive interference performance of non-scatter hoarding great tits (Parus major) from high and low elevations where harshness increases with elevation. In contrast to studies of scatter-hoarders, we did not find a significant difference between high and low elevation birds in their spatial memory accuracy or proactive interference performance. Using a variance partitioning approach, we report the first among-individual trade-off between spatial memory and proactive interference, uncovering variation in memory at the individual level where selection may act. Although we have no evidence of harsh habitats affecting spatial memory, our results suggest that if elevation produced differences in spatial memory between elevations, we could see concurrent changes in how quickly birds can forget.
format	article
author	Ethan Hermer Ben Murphy Alexis S. Chaine Julie Morand-Ferron
author_facet	Ethan Hermer Ben Murphy Alexis S. Chaine Julie Morand-Ferron
author_sort	Ethan Hermer
title	Great tits who remember more accurately have difficulty forgetting, but variation is not driven by environmental harshness
title_short	Great tits who remember more accurately have difficulty forgetting, but variation is not driven by environmental harshness
title_full	Great tits who remember more accurately have difficulty forgetting, but variation is not driven by environmental harshness
title_fullStr	Great tits who remember more accurately have difficulty forgetting, but variation is not driven by environmental harshness
title_full_unstemmed	Great tits who remember more accurately have difficulty forgetting, but variation is not driven by environmental harshness
title_sort	great tits who remember more accurately have difficulty forgetting, but variation is not driven by environmental harshness
publisher	Nature Portfolio
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/2b12e65afa05427ea92e2a9e69d526bc
work_keys_str_mv	AT ethanhermer greattitswhoremembermoreaccuratelyhavedifficultyforgettingbutvariationisnotdrivenbyenvironmentalharshness AT benmurphy greattitswhoremembermoreaccuratelyhavedifficultyforgettingbutvariationisnotdrivenbyenvironmentalharshness AT alexisschaine greattitswhoremembermoreaccuratelyhavedifficultyforgettingbutvariationisnotdrivenbyenvironmentalharshness AT juliemorandferron greattitswhoremembermoreaccuratelyhavedifficultyforgettingbutvariationisnotdrivenbyenvironmentalharshness
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Great tits who remember more accurately have difficulty forgetting, but variation is not driven by environmental harshness

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