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Social context alters spatial memory performance in free-living male prairie voles

Spatial memory is crucial for mating success because it enables males to locate potential mates and potential competitors in space. Intraspecific competition and its varying intensity under certain conditions are potentially important for shaping spatial memory. For example, spatial memory could ena...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Rice, Marissa A., Sanín, Gloria, Ophir, Alexander G.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: The Royal Society 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6894606/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31827827
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.190743
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author Rice, Marissa A.
Sanín, Gloria
Ophir, Alexander G.
author_facet Rice, Marissa A.
Sanín, Gloria
Ophir, Alexander G.
author_sort Rice, Marissa A.
collection PubMed
description Spatial memory is crucial for mating success because it enables males to locate potential mates and potential competitors in space. Intraspecific competition and its varying intensity under certain conditions are potentially important for shaping spatial memory. For example, spatial memory could enable males to know where competitors are (contest competition), it could help males find mating partners (scramble competition) or both. We manipulated the intensity of intraspecific competition in two distinct contexts by altering the operational sex ratio of prairie voles (Microtus ochrogaster) living in outdoor enclosures by creating male- and female-biased sex ratios. After living freely under these contexts for four weeks, we compared males' performance in a laboratory spatial memory test. Males in the male-biased context demonstrated better spatial memory performance than males in the female-biased context. Notably, these data show that in spite of experiencing equally complex spatial contexts (i.e. natural outdoor enclosures), it was the social context that influenced spatial cognition, and it did so in a manner consistent with the hypothesis that spatial memory is particularly relevant for male–male interactions.
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spelling pubmed-68946062019-12-11 Social context alters spatial memory performance in free-living male prairie voles Rice, Marissa A. Sanín, Gloria Ophir, Alexander G. R Soc Open Sci Biology (Whole Organism) Spatial memory is crucial for mating success because it enables males to locate potential mates and potential competitors in space. Intraspecific competition and its varying intensity under certain conditions are potentially important for shaping spatial memory. For example, spatial memory could enable males to know where competitors are (contest competition), it could help males find mating partners (scramble competition) or both. We manipulated the intensity of intraspecific competition in two distinct contexts by altering the operational sex ratio of prairie voles (Microtus ochrogaster) living in outdoor enclosures by creating male- and female-biased sex ratios. After living freely under these contexts for four weeks, we compared males' performance in a laboratory spatial memory test. Males in the male-biased context demonstrated better spatial memory performance than males in the female-biased context. Notably, these data show that in spite of experiencing equally complex spatial contexts (i.e. natural outdoor enclosures), it was the social context that influenced spatial cognition, and it did so in a manner consistent with the hypothesis that spatial memory is particularly relevant for male–male interactions. The Royal Society 2019-11-20 /pmc/articles/PMC6894606/ /pubmed/31827827 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.190743 Text en © 2019 The Authors. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ 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 Biology (Whole Organism)
Rice, Marissa A.
Sanín, Gloria
Ophir, Alexander G.
Social context alters spatial memory performance in free-living male prairie voles
title Social context alters spatial memory performance in free-living male prairie voles
title_full Social context alters spatial memory performance in free-living male prairie voles
title_fullStr Social context alters spatial memory performance in free-living male prairie voles
title_full_unstemmed Social context alters spatial memory performance in free-living male prairie voles
title_short Social context alters spatial memory performance in free-living male prairie voles
title_sort social context alters spatial memory performance in free-living male prairie voles
topic Biology (Whole Organism)
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6894606/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31827827
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.190743
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