Data from: Maternal effects impact decision-making in a viviparous lizard

Stressful conditions experienced during early development can have deleterious effects on offspring morphology, physiology and behaviour. However, few studies have examined how developmental stress influences an individual’s cognitive phenotype. Using a viviparous lizard, we show that the availability of food resources to a mother during gestation influences a key component of her offspring’s cognitive phenotype; their decision-making. Offspring from females who experienced low resource availability during gestation did better in an anti-predatory task that relied on spatial associations to guide their decisions, whereas offspring from females who experienced high resource availability during gestation did better in a foraging task that relied on colour associations to inform their decisions. This shows that the prenatal environment can influence decision-making in animals, a cognitive trait with functional implications later in life.个体早期发育阶段所经历的应激环境，会对子代的形态学、生理学及行为学特征产生有害影响。然而，目前鲜有研究探讨发育应激如何影响个体的认知表型（cognitive phenotype）。本研究以胎生蜥蜴（viviparous lizard）为实验对象，结果表明：母兽妊娠期内的食物资源可获得性，会对子代认知表型的关键组成部分——决策能力——产生影响。妊娠期食物资源匮乏的母兽所产子代，在依赖空间关联指导决策的反捕食任务（anti-predatory task）中表现更优；而妊娠期食物资源充足的母兽所产子代，则在依赖颜色关联指导决策的觅食任务（foraging task）中表现更佳。该研究证实，产前环境能够调控动物的决策能力——这一认知特质在个体后续的生命历程中具有重要的功能意义。