Past research shows that food neophobics (those individuals reluctant to try novel foods) and food neophilics (those individuals overtly willing to try novel foods) differ in terms of sensory evaluations, psychophysic...Past research shows that food neophobics (those individuals reluctant to try novel foods) and food neophilics (those individuals overtly willing to try novel foods) differ in terms of sensory evaluations, psychophysical ratings, stimulus sampling, physiological responses, and genetic predispositions. The present study assessed whether such factors had an effect on participants’ dietary consumption and subsequent nutritional adequacy. One hundred and sixteen participants, aged 18 - 76 years, completed a food diary for three days as well as several eating-related questionnaires. Nutritional summaries and questionnaire scores were subjected to a multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) with participants being sorted into three groups depending on their Food Neophobia Score. These three groups consisted of food neophobics, average individuals, and food neophilics. Groups were found to differ significantly on dietary intake of 20 specific nutritional and caloric items, with food-neophobics typically having the lowest intake. Implications support the initial hypothesis of food neophobics having less nutritionally plentiful diets than food neophilics, thus leading food neophobics to have a nutritionally deficient diet. This finding is important since decrease in nutritional intake can result in health related deficiencies.展开更多
Behavioral flexibility provides an individual with the ability to adapt its behavior in response to environmental changes. Studies on mammals, birds, and teleosts indicate greater behavioral flexibility in females. Co...Behavioral flexibility provides an individual with the ability to adapt its behavior in response to environmental changes. Studies on mammals, birds, and teleosts indicate greater behavioral flexibility in females. Conversely, males appear to exhibit greater behavioral persistenee. We, therefore, investigated sex differences in behavioral flexibility in 2 closely related molly species (Poecilia latipinna, P. mexicana) and their more distant relative, the guppy P. reticulata by comparing male and female individuals in a serial, visual reversal learning task. Fish were first trained in color discrimination, which was quickly learned by all females (guppies and mollies) and all molly males alike. Despite continued training over more than 72 sessions, male guppies did not learn the general test procedure and were, therefore, excluded from further testing. Once the reward contingency was reversed serially, molly males of both species performed considerably better by inhibiting their previous response and reached the learning criterion sign讦icantly faster than their respective con specific females. Moreover, Atlantic molly males clearly outperformed all other individuals (males and females) and some of them even reached the level of 1-trial learning. Thus, the apparently un iversal pattern of higher female behavioral flexibility seems to be in verted in the 2 examined molly species, although the evolutionary account of this pattern remains highly speculative. These findings were complemented by the observed lower neophobia of female sailfin mollies compared with their male con specifics. This sex differe nee was not observed in Atlantic mollies that were observed to be sigrdficantly less distressed in a novel situation than their consexuals. Hypothetically, sex differences in behavioral flexibility can possibly be explained in terms of the different roles that males and females play in mating competition, mate choice, and reproduction or, more gen erally, in complex social in teractio ns. Each of these characteristics clearly differed between the closely related mollies and the more distantly related guppies.展开更多
文摘Past research shows that food neophobics (those individuals reluctant to try novel foods) and food neophilics (those individuals overtly willing to try novel foods) differ in terms of sensory evaluations, psychophysical ratings, stimulus sampling, physiological responses, and genetic predispositions. The present study assessed whether such factors had an effect on participants’ dietary consumption and subsequent nutritional adequacy. One hundred and sixteen participants, aged 18 - 76 years, completed a food diary for three days as well as several eating-related questionnaires. Nutritional summaries and questionnaire scores were subjected to a multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) with participants being sorted into three groups depending on their Food Neophobia Score. These three groups consisted of food neophobics, average individuals, and food neophilics. Groups were found to differ significantly on dietary intake of 20 specific nutritional and caloric items, with food-neophobics typically having the lowest intake. Implications support the initial hypothesis of food neophobics having less nutritionally plentiful diets than food neophilics, thus leading food neophobics to have a nutritionally deficient diet. This finding is important since decrease in nutritional intake can result in health related deficiencies.
基金We are grateful to the Director and staff of Zhouzhi National Nature Reserve for their permission to conduct this research. We appreciate Gou ST, Zhang P, Zhu WW, Ren Y, Zhang D, Huang K, Zhang HY, Wu LL, Wang XW, Zhao HT, and Wang CL for their help during the study. This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China （No.31130061, No30970444., No.31200293）, the Talent Introduction Fund of Tianjin Nor- mal University （No.5RLII5）, and the Cosmo Oil Eco Card Fund of Japan （2005-2012）.
文摘Behavioral flexibility provides an individual with the ability to adapt its behavior in response to environmental changes. Studies on mammals, birds, and teleosts indicate greater behavioral flexibility in females. Conversely, males appear to exhibit greater behavioral persistenee. We, therefore, investigated sex differences in behavioral flexibility in 2 closely related molly species (Poecilia latipinna, P. mexicana) and their more distant relative, the guppy P. reticulata by comparing male and female individuals in a serial, visual reversal learning task. Fish were first trained in color discrimination, which was quickly learned by all females (guppies and mollies) and all molly males alike. Despite continued training over more than 72 sessions, male guppies did not learn the general test procedure and were, therefore, excluded from further testing. Once the reward contingency was reversed serially, molly males of both species performed considerably better by inhibiting their previous response and reached the learning criterion sign讦icantly faster than their respective con specific females. Moreover, Atlantic molly males clearly outperformed all other individuals (males and females) and some of them even reached the level of 1-trial learning. Thus, the apparently un iversal pattern of higher female behavioral flexibility seems to be in verted in the 2 examined molly species, although the evolutionary account of this pattern remains highly speculative. These findings were complemented by the observed lower neophobia of female sailfin mollies compared with their male con specifics. This sex differe nee was not observed in Atlantic mollies that were observed to be sigrdficantly less distressed in a novel situation than their consexuals. Hypothetically, sex differences in behavioral flexibility can possibly be explained in terms of the different roles that males and females play in mating competition, mate choice, and reproduction or, more gen erally, in complex social in teractio ns. Each of these characteristics clearly differed between the closely related mollies and the more distantly related guppies.
