TITLE:
Effect of Nutrient Restriction on Social Transmission of Food Preferences Depends on Nutrient and Species
AUTHORS:
Darryl J. Mayeaux, Maxwell B. Wallace, Anne M. Young
KEYWORDS:
Social Learning, Dietary Preference, Nutrient Restriction
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Behavioral and Brain Science,
Vol.4 No.12,
December
31,
2014
ABSTRACT: For omnivores to
determine whether an unfamiliar item is an appropriate food, they could rely on
personal information from sampling it themselves or rely on less risky
observation of whether other individuals eat the item. Availability of
information about food from social companions in group-living species is one of
the benefits of group life. Adults of solitary-living species, however, seem
typically less likely to rely on social information about food choice. If an
individual faced a nutritional deficit, it would seem to increase the value of
public information. This study addresses whether dietary restriction from
certain nutrients (sodium, potassium, protein, carbohydrates) affects reliance
on information about food from conspecifics. Without nutrient restriction,
group-living Norway rats (Rattus norvegicus)
preferred the diet that they smelled on the breath of a conspecific
demonstrator, but solitary-living Syrian hamsters (Mesocricetus auratus) avoided it. Protein restriction yielded similar results as measured one
hour into a diet choice test. Potassium restriction, however, reversed the
pattern: rats avoided the demonstrator’s diet but hamsters preferred it.
Clearly, the valence of social information depended on the nutrient from which
individuals were restricted and the species under study. This could be related
to the contrasting social organization that members of each species generate.
Neither species relied on social information about the availability of a
nutrient from which they were restricted if they could taste that nutrient for
themselves (sodium, carbohydrates).