Cognitive flexibility and sociality in Guinea baboons (Papio papio)

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 19; no. 12; p. e0308778
• Main Authors: Gullstrand, Julie, Claidière, Nicolas, Fagot, Joël
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 19.12.2024; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Adaptation; Adults; Analysis; Animal biology; Animal cognition; Animals; Baboons; Behavior, Animal - physiology; Biology and life sciences; Cognition; Cognition - physiology; Cognitive science; Cognitive tasks; Computer and Information Sciences; Ethics; Executive function; Female; Flexibility; Food; Gorillas; Laboratory animals; Latency; Life Sciences; Male; Middle age; Monkeys & apes; Papio papio; Papio papio - physiology; People and Places; Primates; Problem solving; Social Behavior; Social change; Social discrimination learning; Social groups; Social networks; Social organization; Social Sciences; Social structure; Vertebrate Zoology; France; Learning; Baboons; Animal sociality; Centrality; Primates; Social networks; Macaque; Age groups
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0308778

Cognitive flexibility is an executive function playing an important role in problem solving and the adaptation to contextual changes. While most studies investigated the contribution of cognitive flexibility to solve problems in the physical domain, the current study on baboons ( Papio papio ) investigated its contribution to sociality. The current study verified whether there is a relationship between cognitive flexibility at the individual level and the position of the individuals within their social group. Our study re-analysed for that purpose an already published dataset of 18 baboons Guinea baboons tested over two years in an adaptation of the Wisconsin Card Sorting task. The dominance rank and social network were inferred from their free access to the computer test system on which the cognitive task was presented. We found no clear-cut relationship between the hierarchical rank and cognitive flexibility (perseveration, learning latency and response time). By contrast, the most central baboons in their social network are those with the best performance in terms of cognitive flexibility. Overall, this study confirms our hypothesis that cognitive flexibility plays some roles in the regulation of the social relationship in baboons.