eprintid: 10100665 rev_number: 14 eprint_status: archive userid: 608 dir: disk0/10/10/06/65 datestamp: 2020-06-15 15:24:58 lastmod: 2021-10-28 22:16:38 status_changed: 2020-06-15 15:24:58 type: article metadata_visibility: show creators_name: Ducatez, S creators_name: Lefebvre, L creators_name: Sayol, F creators_name: Audet, JN creators_name: Sol, D title: Host Cognition and Parasitism in Birds: A Review of the Main Mechanisms ispublished: pub divisions: UCL divisions: B02 divisions: C08 divisions: D09 divisions: F99 keywords: behavioral plasticity, cognition, expensive tissue hypothesis, exposure hypothesis, immune traits, infection costs, parasite avoidance, pathogen note: This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ abstract: Parasites can have important detrimental effects on host fitness, thereby influencing their ecology and evolution. Hosts can, in turn, exert strong selective pressures on their parasites, affecting eco-evolutionary dynamics. Although the reciprocal pressures that hosts and parasites exert on each other have long been recognized, the mechanisms are insufficiently understood. Here, we discuss the role of host cognition in host–parasite eco-evolutionary dynamics. Theoretical advances have acknowledged the importance of behavior in shaping these dynamics, but how and why host cognition should affect and/or be affected by parasites is less clear. We propose three scenarios that may create causal and non-causal links between cognition and the richness, prevalence and intensity of parasites. First, host cognition may change the probability of exposure to parasites, either increasing (e.g., altering the relationship with the environment via innovative behaviors) or decreasing (e.g., influencing decision-making to avoid infected conspecifics) exposure. Second, parasites may change host cognitive performance, for example, by reducing host condition. Finally, host cognition and parasites can be associated via common causal factors (e.g., shared molecular pathways), energetic constraints generating trade-offs between cognition and immunocompetence, or trait co-evolution with life history, ecological, or social strategies. The existence of such a variety of non-mutually exclusive mechanisms suggests that host cognition has a great potential to affect and be affected by parasites. However, it also implies that progress in understanding these effects will only be possible if we distinguish between causal and non-causal links. date: 2020-04-23 date_type: published official_url: https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2020.00102 oa_status: green full_text_type: pub language: eng primo: open primo_central: open_green verified: verified_manual elements_id: 1788699 doi: 10.3389/fevo.2020.00102 lyricists_name: Sayol, Ferran lyricists_id: FSAYO96 actors_name: Sayol, Ferran actors_id: FSAYO96 actors_role: owner full_text_status: public publication: Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution volume: 8 article_number: 102 citation: Ducatez, S; Lefebvre, L; Sayol, F; Audet, JN; Sol, D; (2020) Host Cognition and Parasitism in Birds: A Review of the Main Mechanisms. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution , 8 , Article 102. 10.3389/fevo.2020.00102 <https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2020.00102>. Green open access document_url: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10100665/1/fevo-08-00102.pdf