Stress axis programming generates long-term effects on cognitive abilities in a cooperative breeder

The ability to flexibly adjust behaviour to social and non-social challenges is important for successfully navigating variable environments. Social competence, i.e., adaptive behavioural flexibility in the social domain, allows individuals to optimize their expression of social behaviour. Behavioural flexibility outside the social domain aids in coping with ecological challenges. However, it is unknown if social and non-social behavioural flexibility share common underlying cognitive mechanisms. Support for such shared mechanism would be provided if the same neural mechanisms in the brain affected social and non-social behavioural flexibility similarly. We used individuals of the cooperatively-breeding fish Neolamprologus pulcher that had undergone early-life programming of the hypothalamic-pituitary-interrenal (HPI) axis by exposure to (i) cortisol, (ii) the glucocorticoid-receptor antagonist mifepristone or (iii) control treatments, and where effects of stress-axis programming on soci...