Long photoperiod impairs learning in male but not female medaka

Day length in conjunction with seasonal cycles affects many aspects of animal biology. We have studied photoperiod-dependent alterations of complex behavior in the teleost, medaka (Oryzias latipes), a photoperiodic breeder, in a learning paradigm whereby fish have to activate a sensor to obtain a food reward.Medaka were tested under a long (14:10 LD) and short (10:14 LD) photoperiod in three different groups:mixed-sex, all-males, and all-females. Under long photoperiod, medaka mixed-sex groups learned rapidly with a stable response. Unexpectedly, males-only groups showed a strong learning deficit, whereas females- only groups performed efficiently. In mixed-sex groups, female individuals drove group learning, whereas males apparently prioritized mating over feeding behavior resulting in strongly reduced learning performance. Under short photoperiod, wheremedaka do notmate,male performance improved to a level similar to that of females. Thus, photoperiod has sex-specific effects on the learning performance of a seasonal vertebrate.