Allomaternal care, brains and fertility in mammals: who cares matters

Heldstab, Sandra A.; Isler, Karin; Burkart, Judith M.; Schaik, Carel P. van

doi:10.1007/s00265-019-2684-x

Cited by 25 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 155 publications

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“…The CBH and EBH are not mutually exclusive (Heldstab et al., 2019; van Woerden et al., 2012), and the size variations of vertebrate brains are probably the results of a balance between energy allocation and cognitive benefits (Kotrschal, Corral‐Lopez, et al., 2015; Kotrschal et al., 2013; Lázaro et al., 2018). While the EBH emphasizes on energetic constraints (LemaîTre et al., 2009), CBH focuses on cognitive benefits.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The expensive brain hypothesis (EBH) suggests that the evolution of brain size is constrained by either the total energetic input or the energy allocated to the brain, and predicts a correlation between the lowest level of steady energetic input and the brain size (Heldstab et al., 2016; Isler & van Schaik, 2009; Navarrete et al., 2011). Several studies demonstrated that energetic constraints imposed by environmental seasonality and hibernation play a crucial role in mammalian brain size evolution (Heldstab et al., 2018, 2019; van Woerden et al., 2012). A recent comparative analysis of anuran species also supported the EBH (Luo et al., 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Brain size variation along altitudinal gradients in the Asiatic Toad (Bufo gargarizans)

Yao

Yue

et al. 2021

Ecology and Evolution

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Brain size variation along altitudinal gradients in the Asiatic Toad (Bufo gargarizans)

Yao

Yue

et al. 2021

Ecology and Evolution

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“…We compiled data on the cranial capacity and body mass of primates from the studies by Heldstab et al [2018Heldstab et al [ , 2019. We selected species with fairly large sample sizes (n ≥5 for each sex) to minimize error in estimating the mean body and brain size of males and females.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Farewell to the Encephalization Quotient: A New Brain Size Measure for Comparative Primate Cognition

et al. 2021

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Both absolute and relative brain sizes vary greatly among and within the major vertebrate lineages. Scientists have long debated how larger brains in primates and hominins translate into greater cognitive performance, and in particular how to control for the relationship between the noncognitive functions of the brain and body size. One solution to this problem is to establish the slope of cognitive equivalence, i.e., the line connecting organisms with an identical bauplan but different body sizes. The original approach to estimate this slope through intraspecific regressions was abandoned after it became clear that it generated slopes that were too low by an unknown margin due to estimation error. Here, we revisit this method. We control for the error problem by focusing on highly dimorphic primate species with large sample sizes and fitting a line through the mean values for adult females and males. We obtain the best estimate for the slope of circa 0.27, a value much lower than those constructed using all mammal species and close to the value expected based on the genetic correlation between brain size and body size. We also find that the estimate of cognitive brain size based on cognitive equivalence fits empirical cognitive studies better than the encephalization quotient, which should therefore be avoided in future studies on primates and presumably mammals and birds in general. The use of residuals from the line of cognitive equivalence may change conclusions concerning the cognitive abilities of extant and extinct primate species, including hominins.

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“…We compiled data on cranial capacity and body mass of primates from the studies by Heldstab et al [2018, 2019]. We selected species with fairly large sample sizes (N ≥ 5 for each sex) to minimize error in estimating the mean body and brain size of males and females.…”

Section: Materialsand Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A farewell to EQ: A new brain size measure for comparative primate cognition

Schaik

Triki

Bshary

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Both absolute and relative brain size vary greatly among and within the major vertebrate lineages. Scientists have long debated how larger brains in primates and hominins translate into greater cognitive performance, and in particular how to control for the relationship between the non-cognitive functions of the brain and body size. One solution to this problem is to establish the slope of cognitive equivalence, that is the line connecting organisms with an identical bauplan but different body sizes. Here, we suggest that intraspecific slopes provide the best available estimate of this measure. This approach was abandoned because slopes were too low by an unknown margin due to estimation error. We control for the error problem by focusing on highly dimorphic primate species with large sample sizes and fitting a line through the mean values for adult females and males. We obtain the best estimate for the slope of ca 0.27, a value much lower than those constructed using all mammal species, and close to the value expected based on the genetic correlation between brain size and body size. We also find that the estimate of cognitive brain size based on cognitive equivalence fits empirical cognitive studies better than the encephalization quotient (EQ), which should therefore be avoided in future studies on primates, and presumably mammals and birds in general. The use of residuals from the line of cognitive equivalence may change conclusions concerning the cognitive abilities of extant and extinct primate species, including hominins.

show abstract

Allomaternal care, brains and fertility in mammals: who cares matters

Cited by 25 publications

References 155 publications

Brain size variation along altitudinal gradients in the Asiatic Toad (Bufo gargarizans)

Brain size variation along altitudinal gradients in the Asiatic Toad (Bufo gargarizans)

A Farewell to the Encephalization Quotient: A New Brain Size Measure for Comparative Primate Cognition

A farewell to EQ: A new brain size measure for comparative primate cognition

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