Biology subjects

Cornilleau, F.

Publications and source records attributed to Cornilleau, F..

3 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2026

Japanese quail (Coturnix japonica) selected for high social motivation rely on conspecifics for buffering but not learning in sociocognitive tasks

Social living is widely considered a key driver of cognitive evolution, yet individuals within a species and even within the same group can differ substantially in their sociability (i.e., an individuals propensity to form and maintain social bonds), which can ultimately shape the social environment they experience by influencing how they interact with, respond to, and engage in it. How such individual variation in this personality trait affects social cognition, however, remains poorly understood. To address this question, we used two selectively bred lines of Japanese quail (Coturnix japonica) that consistently differ in social motivation, a key component of sociability, which we used as a proxy for this broader trait. In these lines, S+ individuals show high social motivation, whereas S- individuals show low social motivation. We compared their sociocognitive performance across three tasks: a gaze following task, a social buffering task, and a social discrimination learning task. Our findings revealed that Japanese quail reliably followed the gaze of conspecifics, providing the first evidence of this ability in this species. However, there was no difference between lines, suggesting that basic gaze following into the distance is independent of social motivation. In contrast, line differences emerged in the other tasks. S+ quail were more sensitive and less adaptable in response to environmental changes, particularly under social isolation, although the presence of a conspecific strongly buffered these effects. S- quail, on the other hand, outperformed S+ individuals in the social discrimination learning task, rapidly exploiting available social cues to guide foraging decisions. Overall, this study demonstrates that social motivation modulates sociocognitive performance in a context-dependent manner. Rather than conferring a general cognitive advantage, divergent selection on social motivation leads to different strategies of social information use across tasks and contexts, highlighting the complex interplay between personality, social environment, and cognition.

animal behavior and cognition↗

bioRxiv2025

Cows visually discriminate and cross-modally recognise familiar and unfamiliar human faces in videos

Social recognition has been studied and demonstrated in many species. In domesticated species, the long evolutionary history shared with humans has led to investigations into their cognitive abilities towards humans, particularly regarding discrimination and recognition of humans. The present study investigated whether cows are capable of visual discrimination and cross-modal recognition of familiar and unfamiliar humans. Thirty-two cows were exposed to two tests: a visual preference test, during which two silent videos were shown simultaneously - each displaying either a familiar or an unfamiliar human face - and a cross-modal test, during which the videos were accompanied by either a congruent or incongruent voice. During the visual preference test, cows looked significantly longer at the video showing the unfamiliar person (p = 0.025). In the cross-modal test, they looked significantly longer at the video that was congruent with the voice being played (p = 0.021). These two results show that cows are able to discriminate between familiar and unfamiliar individuals and form cross-modal representations of these people. Based on these results, future research should explore whether cows can adjust their behaviour depending on the person they are interacting with - a capacity that may reflect their agency in human-animal relationships.

animal behavior and cognition↗

bioRxiv2021

Training level reveals a dynamic dialogue between stress and memory systems in birds

It is now well-accepted that memory is a dynamic process, and that stress and training level may influence which memory system an individual engages when solving a task. In this work, we investigated whether and how chronic stress impacts spatial and cue-based memories according to training level. To that aim, control and chronically stressed Japanese quail were trained in a task that could be solved using spatial and cue-based memory and tested for their memory performances after 5 and 15 training days (initial training and overtraining, respectively) and following an emotional challenge (exposure to an open field). While chronic stress negatively impacted spatial memory in chronically stressed birds after initial training, this impact was lowered after overtraining compared to control quail. Interestingly, the emotional challenge reinstated the differences in performance between the two groups, revealing that chronic stress/overtraining did not eliminate spatial memory. Differences caused by previous stressors can re-emerge depending on the more immediate psychological state of the individual. Contrary to spatial memory, cue-based memory was not impaired in any test occasion, confirming that this form of memory is resistant to chronic stress. Altogether these findings reveal a dynamic dialogue between stress, training, and memory systems in birds.

animal behavior and cognition↗