Cargando…

Developmental telomere attrition predicts impulsive decision-making in adult starlings

Animals in a poor biological state face reduced life expectancy, and as a consequence should make decisions that prioritize immediate survival and reproduction over long-term benefits. We tested the prediction that if, as has been suggested, developmental telomere attrition is a biomarker of state a...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Bateson, Melissa, Brilot, Ben O., Gillespie, Robert, Monaghan, Pat, Nettle, Daniel
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: The Royal Society 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4286045/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25473012
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2014.2140
_version_ 1782351638272409600
author Bateson, Melissa
Brilot, Ben O.
Gillespie, Robert
Monaghan, Pat
Nettle, Daniel
author_facet Bateson, Melissa
Brilot, Ben O.
Gillespie, Robert
Monaghan, Pat
Nettle, Daniel
author_sort Bateson, Melissa
collection PubMed
description Animals in a poor biological state face reduced life expectancy, and as a consequence should make decisions that prioritize immediate survival and reproduction over long-term benefits. We tested the prediction that if, as has been suggested, developmental telomere attrition is a biomarker of state and future life expectancy, then individuals who have undergone greater developmental telomere attrition should display greater choice impulsivity as adults. We measured impulsive decision-making in a cohort of European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) in which we had previously manipulated developmental telomere attrition by cross-fostering sibling chicks into broods of different sizes. We show that as predicted by state-dependent optimality models, individuals who had sustained greater developmental telomere attrition and who had shorter current telomeres made more impulsive foraging decisions as adults, valuing smaller, sooner food rewards more highly than birds with less attrition and longer telomeres. Our findings shed light on the biological embedding of early adversity and support a functional explanation for its consequences that could be applicable to other species, including humans.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-4286045
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2015
publisher The Royal Society
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-42860452015-01-22 Developmental telomere attrition predicts impulsive decision-making in adult starlings Bateson, Melissa Brilot, Ben O. Gillespie, Robert Monaghan, Pat Nettle, Daniel Proc Biol Sci Research Articles Animals in a poor biological state face reduced life expectancy, and as a consequence should make decisions that prioritize immediate survival and reproduction over long-term benefits. We tested the prediction that if, as has been suggested, developmental telomere attrition is a biomarker of state and future life expectancy, then individuals who have undergone greater developmental telomere attrition should display greater choice impulsivity as adults. We measured impulsive decision-making in a cohort of European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) in which we had previously manipulated developmental telomere attrition by cross-fostering sibling chicks into broods of different sizes. We show that as predicted by state-dependent optimality models, individuals who had sustained greater developmental telomere attrition and who had shorter current telomeres made more impulsive foraging decisions as adults, valuing smaller, sooner food rewards more highly than birds with less attrition and longer telomeres. Our findings shed light on the biological embedding of early adversity and support a functional explanation for its consequences that could be applicable to other species, including humans. The Royal Society 2015-01-22 /pmc/articles/PMC4286045/ /pubmed/25473012 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2014.2140 Text en http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ © 2014 The Authors. Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Articles
Bateson, Melissa
Brilot, Ben O.
Gillespie, Robert
Monaghan, Pat
Nettle, Daniel
Developmental telomere attrition predicts impulsive decision-making in adult starlings
title Developmental telomere attrition predicts impulsive decision-making in adult starlings
title_full Developmental telomere attrition predicts impulsive decision-making in adult starlings
title_fullStr Developmental telomere attrition predicts impulsive decision-making in adult starlings
title_full_unstemmed Developmental telomere attrition predicts impulsive decision-making in adult starlings
title_short Developmental telomere attrition predicts impulsive decision-making in adult starlings
title_sort developmental telomere attrition predicts impulsive decision-making in adult starlings
topic Research Articles
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4286045/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25473012
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2014.2140
work_keys_str_mv AT batesonmelissa developmentaltelomereattritionpredictsimpulsivedecisionmakinginadultstarlings
AT brilotbeno developmentaltelomereattritionpredictsimpulsivedecisionmakinginadultstarlings
AT gillespierobert developmentaltelomereattritionpredictsimpulsivedecisionmakinginadultstarlings
AT monaghanpat developmentaltelomereattritionpredictsimpulsivedecisionmakinginadultstarlings
AT nettledaniel developmentaltelomereattritionpredictsimpulsivedecisionmakinginadultstarlings