PUBLICATION

Lateralization correlates with individual differences in inhibitory control in zebrafish

Authors
Lucon-Xiccato, T., Montalbano, G., Dadda, M., Bertolucci, C.
ID
ZDB-PUB-200805-10
Date
2020
Source
Biology letters   16: 20200296 (Journal)
Registered Authors
Bertolucci, Cristiano, Lucon-Xiccato, Tyrone, Montalbano, Giuseppe
Keywords
cognitive abilities, executive functions, fish cognition, laterality
MeSH Terms
  • Animals
  • Functional Laterality
  • Humans
  • Individuality*
  • Zebrafish*
PubMed
32750269 Full text @ Biol. Lett.
Abstract
Individual fitness often depends on the ability to inhibit behaviours not adapted to a given situation. However, inhibitory control can vary greatly between individuals of the same species. We investigated a mechanism that might maintain this variability in zebrafish (Danio rerio). We demonstrate that inhibitory control correlates with cerebral lateralization, the tendency to process information with one brain hemisphere or the other. Individuals that preferentially observed a social stimulus with the right eye and thus processed social information with the left brain hemisphere, inhibited foraging behaviour more efficiently. Therefore, selective pressures that maintain lateralization variability in populations might provide indirect selection for variability in inhibitory control. Our study suggests that individual cognitive differences may result from complex multi-trait selection mechanisms.
Genes / Markers
Figures
Expression
Phenotype
Mutations / Transgenics
Human Disease / Model
Sequence Targeting Reagents
Fish
Antibodies
Orthology
Engineered Foreign Genes
Mapping