Há relação entre personalidade e cognição em larvas de odonata?

Abstract

Recently, researchers have focused their attention to the relationship between cognition and personality. Due to their striking diversity of behavioral patterns, insects have been proven an interesting object to address the evolution of between animal cognition and personality. Although some studies suggest that odonates may have personalities and learn, no study made experimental procedures using conditioning methods. Therefore, here we addressed whether dragonfly larvae are able to learn in an absolute conditioning experiment with visual stimuli (red and blue). Moreover, we tested whether learning was dependent on personality, measured as activity in predatory risk tests. The results suggest that larvae learn to associate a blue unconditioned stimulus with prey, and that this cognitive process is dependent on personality. More active larvae were faster-learners and showed more correct responses towards the positive stimulus. We conclude that dragonflies may become a good model for studying insect personality and cognition, and, future studies should endeavor on how dragonfly cognition and personality affect fitness in different environments.