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Andrea Townsend, Natalie Nannas, and Keelah Williams

Inbreeding and cognitive impairment in animals,” by Associate Professor of Biology Andrea Townsend, Associate Professor of Psychology Keelah Williams, and Associate Professor of Biology Natalie Nannas, was recently published in the journal Behavioral Ecology. The invited review presents evidence for inbreeding-linked cognitive deficits in human and non-human animals and their implications for behavior and fitness.

“Cognitive abilities like learning and memory guide behavior and are important determinants of fitness,” they said, noting that “a growing body of evidence suggests that inbreeding may impair these abilities.

“Understanding inbreeding-linked cognitive impairment is timely because of the elevated likelihood of inbreeding in changing environments — the very environments in which cognitive flexibility is critical for population persistence,” the authors wrote.

Their work was supported by a Dean’s Works-in-Progress Award, the Christian A. Johnson Teaching Enhancement Fund, and the Christian A. Johnson Fund for International Understanding.

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