Hippocampal volume is related to complexity of nesting habitat in Leach's storm-petrel, a nocturnal procellariiform seabird

Distinct Patterns of Hippocampal and Neocortical Evolution in Primates

Because of the central role of the hippocampus in representing spatial and temporal details of experience, comparative studies of its volume and structure are relevant to understanding the evolution of representational memory across species. The hippocampal formation, however, is organized into separate anatomical subregions with distinct functions, and little is known about the evolutionary diversification of these subregions. We investigate relative volumetric changes in hippocampal subregions across a large sample of primate species. We then compare the evolution of the hippocampal formation to the neocortex. Results across hippocampal subregions indicate that, compared to strepsirrhines, the anthropoid lineage displays a decrease in relative CA3, fascia dentata, subiculum, and rhinal cortex volume in tandem with an increase in relative neocortical volume. These findings indicate that hippocampal function in anthropoids might be substantially augmented by the executive decision-making functions of the neocortex. Humans are found to have a unique cerebral organization combining increased relative CA3, subiculum, and rhinal cortex with increased relative neocortical volumes, suggesting that these regions may play a role in behaviors that are uniquely specialized in humans.

Food caching in city birds: urbanization and exploration do not predict spatial memory in scatter hoarders

Urbanization has been shown to affect the physiological, morphological, and behavioral traits of animals, but it is less clear how cognitive traits are affected. Urban habitats contain artificial food sources, such as bird feeders that are known to impact foraging behaviors. As of yet, however, it is not well known whether urbanization and the abundance of supplemental food during the winter affect caching behaviors and spatial memory in scatter hoarders. We aim to compare caching intensity and spatial memory performance along an urban gradient to determine (i) whether individuals from more urbanized sites cache less frequently and perform less accurately on a spatial memory task, and (ii) for the first time in individual scatter hoarders, whether slower explorers perform more accurately than faster explorers on a spatial memory task. We assessed food caching, exploration of a novel environment, and spatial memory performance of wild-caught black-capped chickadees (Poecile atricapillus; N = 95) from 14 sites along an urban gradient. Although the individuals that cached most in captivity were all from less urbanized sites, we found no clear evidence that caching intensity and spatial memory accuracy differed along an urban gradient. At the individual level, we found no significant relationship between spatial memory performance and exploration score. However, individuals that performed more accurately on the spatial task also tended to cache more, pointing to a specialization of spatial memory in scatter hoarders that could occur at the level of the individual, in addition to the previously documented specialization at the population and species levels.

Evolution of anuran brains: disentangling ecological and phylogenetic sources of variation

Variation in ecological selection pressures has been implicated to explain variation in brain size and architecture in fishes, birds and mammals, but little is known in this respect about amphibians. Likewise, the relative importance of constraint vs. mosaic hypotheses of brain evolution in explaining variation in brain size and architecture remains contentious. Using phylogenetic comparative methods, we studied interspecific variation in brain size and size of different brain parts among 43 Chinese anuran frogs and explored how much of this variation was explainable by variation in ecological factors (viz. habitat type, diet and predation risk). We also evaluated which of the two above-mentioned hypotheses best explains the observed patterns. Although variation in brain size explained on average 80.5% of the variation in size of different brain parts (supporting the constraint hypothesis), none of the three ecological factors were found to explain variation in overall brain size. However, habitat and diet type explained a significant amount of variation in telencephalon size, as well in three composite measures of brain architecture. Likewise, predation risk explained a significant amount of variation in bulbus olfactorius and optic tecta size. Our results show that evolution of anuran brain accommodates features compatible with both constraint (viz. strong allometry among brain parts) and mosaic (viz. independent size changes in response to ecological factors in certain brain parts) models of brain size evolution.

Seasonal Variation in Forebrain Region Sizes in Male Ruffed Grouse (Bonasa umbellus)

The song system of songbirds has provided significant insight into the underlying mechanisms and behavioural consequences of seasonal neuroplasticity. The extent to which seasonal changes in brain region volumes occur in non-songbird species has, however, remained largely untested. Here, we tested whether brain region volumes varied with season in the ruffed grouse (Bonasa umbellus), a gallinaceous bird that produces a unique wing-beating display known as 'drumming' as its primary form of courtship behaviour. Using unbiased stereology, we measured the sizes of the cerebellum, nucleus rotundus, telencephalon, mesopallium, hippocampal formation, striatopallidal complex and arcopallium across spring males, fall males and fall females. The majority of these brain regions did not vary significantly across these three groups. The two exceptions were the striatopallidal complex and arcopallium, both of which were significantly larger in spring males that are actively drumming. These seasonal changes in volume strongly implicate the striatopallidal complex and arcopallium as key structures in the production and/or modulation of the ruffed grouse drumming display and represent the first evidence of seasonal plasticity in the telencephalon underlying a non-vocal courtship behaviour. Our findings also suggest that seasonal plasticity in the striatopallidal complex and arcopallium might be a trait that is shared across many bird species and that both structures are related to the production of multiple forms of courtship and not just learned song.

Sexually dimorphic neural phenotypes in golden-collared manakins (Manacus vitellinus)

Male golden-collared manakins (Manacus vitellinus) perform a high-speed acrobatic courtship display punctuated by loud 'snaps' produced by the wings. Females join males on display courts to select individuals for copulation; females follow displaying males but do not perform acrobatics or make wing snaps. Sexually dimorphic courtship displays such as those performed by manakins are the result of intense sexual selection and suggest that differences between sexes exist at neural levels as well. We examined sex differences in the volume of brain areas that might be involved in the male manakin courtship display and in the female assessment of this display. We found that males had a larger hippocampus (HP, spatial learning) and arcopallium (AP, motor and limbic areas) than females when adjusted for the size of the telencephalon (TELE) minus the target area. Females had a larger ventrolateral mesopallium (MVL) both when adjusting for the size of the remaining TELE and by direct comparison. The entopallium (E) was not sexually dimorphic. The E is part of the avian tectofugal pathway and the MVL is linked to this pathway by reciprocal connections. The MVL likely modulates visually guided behavior via descending brainstem pathways. We found no sex differences in the volume of the cerebellum or cerebellar nuclei. We speculate that the HP is important to males for cross-season site fidelity and for local spatial memory, the AP for sexually driven motor patterns that are complex in males, and that the MVL facilitates female visual processing in selecting male display traits. These results are consistent with the idea that sexual selection has acted to select sex-specific behaviors in manakins that have neural correlates in the brain.

Sex differences in the effects of captivity on hippocampus size in brown-headed cowbirds (Molothrus ater obscurus)

In brood parasitic cowbirds, hippocampus (Hp) size is correlated with environmental spatial memory demands. Searching for host nests is the presumed causal factor influencing cowbird Hp size, because Hp volumes vary across species, sexes, and seasons according to nest-searching participation. Brown-headed cowbirds have female-only nest searching and, at least in the eastern subspecies, a larger Hp in females than in males, suggesting that nest searching influences cowbird Hp size. We predicted that female brown-headed cowbirds housed in aviaries lacking host nests would have a smaller Hp than wild-caught females whereas males would be unaffected. We found that the Hp was smaller in captive females, but not males, compared to their wild-caught counterparts. This did not appear to be due to general effects of an impoverished environment on all brain regions. Our results imply that interruption of nest searching in cowbirds prevents seasonal increase in Hp size in females. Future studies should isolate which behavioral differences between wild and captive birds contributed to captivity-induced changes in Hp volume in females while not affecting males.

Neuroecology

Neuroecology is the study of adaptive variation in cognition and the brain. The origin of neuroecology dates from the 1980s, when researchers in behavioral ecology began to apply the methods of comparative evolutionary biology to cognitive processes and the underlying neural mechanisms of cognition. The comparative approach, however, is much older. It was a mainstay of ethology, it has been part of the study of neuroanatomy since the seventeenth century, and it was used by Darwin to marshal evidence for the theory of natural selection. Neuroecology examines the relations between ecological selection pressures and species or sex differences in cognition and the brain. The goal of neuroecology is to understand how natural selection acts on cognition and its neural mechanisms. This chapter describes the general approach of neuroecology, phylogenetic comparative methods used in the field, and new findings on the cognitive mechanisms and brain structures involved in mating systems, social organization, communication, and foraging. The contribution of neuroecology to psychology and the neurosciences is the information it provides on the selective pressures that have influenced the evolution of cognition and brain structure.

Organization and evolution of the avian forebrain

Early 20th-century comparative anatomists regarded the avian telencephalon as largely consisting of a hypertrophied basal ganglia, with thalamotelencephalic circuitry thus being taken to be akin to thalamostriatal circuitry in mammals. Although this view has been disproved for more than 40 years, only with the recent replacement of the old telencephalic terminology that perpetuated this view by a new terminology reflecting more accurate understanding of avian brain organization has the modern view of avian forebrain organization begun to become more widely appreciated. The modern view, reviewed in the present article, recognizes that the avian basal ganglia occupies no more of the telencephalon than is typically the case in mammals, and that it plays a role in motor control and motor learning as in mammals. Moreover, the vast majority of the telencephalon in birds is pallial in nature and, as true of cerebral cortex in mammals, provides the substrate for the substantial perceptual and cognitive abilities evident among birds. While the evolutionary relationship of the pallium of the avian telencephalon and its thalamic input to mammalian cerebral cortex and its thalamic input remains a topic of intense interest, the evidence currently favors the view that they had a common origin from forerunners in the stem amniotes ancestral to birds and mammals.

Anseriform brain and its parts versus taxonomic and ecological categories

The size of the brain and its macro-anatomical parts in 206 birds representing 19 anseriform species and 4 tribes (Anserini, Anatini, Aythyini and Mergini) was the subject of a comparative analysis. The comparisons involved two aspects: taxonomic (differences among species within tribes and differences among tribes) and ecological (diet composition: vegetation, invertebrates, or fish and the foraging mode: browsing, dabbling, shallow diving, and deep diving). The relative size of the encephalon (E) and its parts (optic tectum, OT; cerebellum, C; brain stem, BS; hemispheres, H) were described using appropriate indices. Five of them, called the cerebral-body indices (E/BW, OT/BW, C/BW, BS/BW, H/BW), involved a ratio between the weight of E or its parts and that of the body (BW). Four intracerebral indices (OT/E, C/E, BS/E, H/E) and allometric equations were used as well. Almost all the indices showed a high intraspecific variability within the Anserini and Mergini; on the other hand, the intracerebral indices did not differ between the species of the Anatini and Aythyini (except for OT/E in the Aythyini). Between-tribe differences were reflected in all 9 indices. The birds feeding on different diets were found to differ in their OT/E and H/E. The herbivorous anserifom OT/E was clearly lower than that of those birds feeding on invertebrates and fish. The highest OT/E was that of the piscivorous birds. In terms of foraging mode, significant differences were revealed in 7 out of the 9 indices used (differences in OT/BW and C/BW proved non-significant). OT/E of the browsing birds was clearly lower than that of the deep diving ducks; BS/E of the browsers was much lower than that of the dabbling and shallow diving ducks. Geese and swans (browsers) showed much higher H/E compared to the deep diving sea ducks. The latter revealed the highest C/E, but significant differences were detected only in comparison with C/E of the shallow diving ducks. The taxonomic (among tribes) and ecological comparisons showed more differences in the intracerebral indices than in the cerebral-body indices.

Interspecific Allometry of the Brain and Brain Regions in Parrots (Psittaciformes): Comparisons with Other Birds and Primates

Despite significant progress in understanding the evolution of the mammalian brain, relatively little is known of the patterns of evolutionary change in the avian brain. In particular, statements regarding which avian taxa have relatively larger brains and brain regions are based on small sample sizes and statistical analyses are generally lacking. We tested whether psittaciforms (parrots, cockatoos and lorikeets) have larger brains and forebrains than other birds using both conventional and phylogenetically based methods. In addition, we compared the psittaciforms to primates to determine if cognitive similarities between the two groups were reflected by similarities in brain and telencephalic volumes. Overall, psittaciforms have relatively larger brains and telencephala than most other non-passerine orders. No significant difference in relative brain or telencephalic volume was detected between psittaciforms and passerines. Comparisons of other brain region sizes between psittaciforms and other birds, however, exhibited conflicting results depending upon whether body mass or a brain volume remainder (total brain volume - brain region volume) was used as a scaling variable. When compared to primates, psittaciforms possessed similar relative brain and telencephalic volumes. The only exception to this was that in some analyses psittaciforms had significantly larger telencephala than primates of similar brain volume. The results therefore provide empirical evidence for previous claims that psittaciforms possess relatively large brains and telencephala. Despite the variability in the results, it is clear that psittaciforms tend to possess large brains and telencephala relative to non-passerines and are similar to primates in this regard. Although it could be suggested that this reflects the advanced cognitive abilities of psittaciforms, similar studies performed in corvids and other avian taxa will be required before this claim can be made with any certainty.

The importance of hippocampus-dependent non-spatial tasks in analyses of homology and homoplasy

The hippocampus or a homologous region plays a role in spatial tasks in a large number of vertebrate species. This result, in combination with recent findings of adaptive specializations of the hippocampus for spatial demands, has led to the conclusion that the prominent selective force behind hippocampal evolution was a need for spatial abilities. However, a review of non-spatial hippocampus-dependent tasks shows that many vertebrate species also share non-spatial functions of the hippocampus. Placed in the appropriate phylogenetic context, it becomes clear that non-spatial facets of hippocampal function were just as likely to be present in our vertebrate ancestors as spatial ones. In addition, the absence of spatial strategy use in three lineages suggests divergence of this feature. Divergence in this character and other characteristics of hippocampal function are meaningful indicators of lineage specific functions. Studies of the evolution of the hippocampus must include examination of spatial and non-spatial functions of the hippocampus and consider both conserved, as well as derived, features.

The evolution of intelligence: adaptive specializations versus general process

Darwin argued that between-species differences in intelligence were differences of degree, not of kind. The contemporary ecological approach to animal cognition argues that animals have evolved species-specific and problem-specific processes to solve problems associated with their particular ecological niches: thus different species use different processes, and within a species, different processes are used to tackle problems involving different inputs. This approach contrasts both with Darwin's view and with the general process view, according to which the same central processes of learning and memory are used across an extensive range of problems involving very different inputs. We review evidence relevant to the claim that the learning and memory performance of non-human animals varies according to the nature of the stimuli involved. We first discuss the resource distribution hypothesis, olfactory learning-set formation, and the 'biological constraints' literature, but find no convincing support from these topics for the ecological account of cognition. We then discuss the claim that the performance of birds in spatial tasks of learning and memory is superior in species that depend heavily upon stored food compared to species that either show less dependence upon stored food or do not store food. If it could be shown that storing species enjoy a superiority specifically in spatial (and not non-spatial) tasks, this would argue that spatial tasks are indeed solved using different processes from those used in non-spatial tasks. Our review of this literature does not find a consistent superiority of storing over non-storing birds in spatial tasks, and, in particular, no evidence of enhanced superiority of storing species when the task demands are increased, by, for example, increasing the number of items to be recalled or the duration of the retention period. We discuss also the observation that the hippocampus of storing birds is larger than that of non-storing birds, and find evidence contrary to the view that hippocampal enlargement is associated with enhanced spatial memory; we are, however, unable to suggest a convincing alternative explanation for hippocampal enlargement. The failure to find solid support for the ecological view supports the view that there are no qualitative differences in cognition between animal species in the processes of learning and memory. We also argue that our review supports our contention that speculation about the phylogenetic development and function of behavioural processes does not provide a solid basis for gaining insight into the nature of those processes. We end by confessing to a belief in one major qualitative difference in cognition in animals: we believe that humans alone are capable of acquiring language, and that it is this capacity that divides our intelligence so sharply from non-human intelligence.

Relative medial and dorsal cortex volume in relation to foraging ecology in congeneric lizards

The need to locate distributed resources such as mates, food, and nests is correlated with an enlarged hippocampus in many mammalian and avian species. This correlation is believed to be a consequence of selection for spatial ability. Little is known about how such ecological needs affect non-mammalian, non-avian species. In lizards, the putative hippocampal homologues are the dorsal cortex (DC) and medial cortex (MC). We examined the relationship between foraging ecology and the size of the DC and MC in congeneric male lizards. We predicted based on the mammalian and avian literature that Acanthodactylus boskianus, an active forager that captures clumped, immobile prey would have a larger MC and DC than A. scutellatus, a sit-and-wait predator, that captures mobile prey. Our previous behavioral studies showed that A. boskianus did not differ from A. scutellatus on a spatial task but that A. boskianus was significantly better at the reversal of a visual discrimination, another task that is hippocampally dependent in mammals. In the current study, we found that, relative to telencephalon volume, the MC and DC were larger in the active forager whereas a control region, the lateral, olfactory, cortex, was similar in size between species. The current anatomical results suggest that MC and DC size is related to active foraging in lizards and, along with our previous behavioral studies, show that it is possible for this relationship to occur in the absence of evidence for species differences in spatial memory.