Early-Life Stress Triggers Juvenile Zebra Finches to Switch Social Learning Strategies.

ABSTRACT: Stress during early life can cause disease and cognitive impairment in humans and non-humans alike. However, stress and other environmental factors can also program developmental pathways. We investigate whether differential exposure to developmental stress can drive divergent social learning strategies between siblings. In many species, juveniles acquire essential foraging skills by copying others: they can copy peers (horizontal social learning), learn from their parents (vertical social learning), or learn from other adults (oblique social learning). However, whether juveniles' learning strategies are condition dependent largely remains a mystery. We found that juvenile zebra finches living in flocks socially learned novel foraging skills exclusively from adults. By experimentally manip

SUBMITTER: Farine DR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4540255 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature