scholarly journals The Effects of Domestication on the Brain and Behavior of the Chicken in the Light of Evolution

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Julia Mehlhorn ◽  
Svenja Caspers

The avian class is characterized by particularly strong variability in their domesticated species. With more than 250 breeds and highly efficient commercial lines, domestic chickens represent the outcome of a really long period of artificial selection. One characteristic of domestication is the alterations in brain size and brain composition. The influence of domestication on brain morphology has been reviewed in the past, but mostly with a focus on mammals. Studies on avian species have seldom been taken into account. In this review, we would like to give an overview about the changes and variations in (brain) morphology and behavior in the domestic chicken, taking into consideration the constraints of evolutionary theory and the sense or nonsense of excessive artificial selection.

2013 ◽  
Vol 2013 ◽  
pp. 1-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia Mehlhorn ◽  
Gerd Rehkämper

The relationship between domestication and evolution is still a matter of discussion. In this review, we present some arguments for the assumption that domestication could be seen as an evolutionary process including the possibility that new species might evolve. In course of domestication, many breeds have been developed which show numerous alterations in different parameters such as body size, coloring, habitat, behavior, and brain size and composition. Here, we would like to give an overview particularly about alterations and varieties in (brain) morphology and behavior in domestic poultry and argue that these alterations could be seen as adaptations to the man-made environment.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathleen Hupfeld ◽  
Heather McGregor ◽  
Patricia Reuter-Lorenz ◽  
Rachael Seidler

Emerging plans for travel to Mars and other deep space destinations make it critical for us to understand how spaceflight affects the human brain and behavior. Research over the past decade has demonstrated two co-occurring patterns of spaceflight effects on the brain and behavior: dysfunction and adaptive plasticity. Evidence indicates the spaceflight environment induces adverse effects on the brain, including upward fluid shifts, gray matter changes, and white matter declines. Past work also suggests that the spaceflight environment induces adaptive neural effects such as sensory reweighting and neural compensation. Here, we introduce a new conceptual framework to synthesize spaceflight effects on the brain, Spaceflight Perturbation Adaptation Coupled with Dysfunction (SPACeD). We review the literature implicating neurobehavioral dysfunction and adaptation in response to spaceflight and microgravity analogues, and we consider pre-, during-, and post-flight factors that may interact with these processes. We draw several instructive parallels with the aging literature which also suggests co-occurring neurobehavioral dysfunction and adaptive processes. We close with recommendations for future spaceflight research, including: 1) increased efforts to distinguish between dysfunctional versus adaptive effects by testing brain--behavioral correlations, and 2) greater focus on tracking recovery time courses.


1985 ◽  
Vol 30 (12) ◽  
pp. 999-999
Author(s):  
Gerald S. Wasserman

2009 ◽  
Vol 212 (15) ◽  
pp. 2411-2418 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. W. Sockman ◽  
K. G. Salvante ◽  
D. M. Racke ◽  
C. R. Campbell ◽  
B. A. Whitman

2009 ◽  
Vol 106 (17) ◽  
pp. 7203-7208 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pei-Yu Wang ◽  
Anna Protheroe ◽  
Andrew N. Clarkson ◽  
Floriane Imhoff ◽  
Kyoko Koishi ◽  
...  

Many behavioral traits and most brain disorders are common to males and females but are more evident in one sex than the other. The control of these subtle sex-linked biases is largely unstudied and has been presumed to mirror that of the highly dimorphic reproductive nuclei. Sexual dimorphism in the reproductive tract is a product of Müllerian inhibiting substance (MIS), as well as the sex steroids. Males with a genetic deficiency in MIS signaling are sexually males, leading to the presumption that MIS is not a neural regulator. We challenge this presumption by reporting that most immature neurons in mice express the MIS-specific receptor (MISRII) and that male Mis−/− and Misrii−/− mice exhibit subtle feminization of their spinal motor neurons and of their exploratory behavior. Consequently, MIS may be a broad regulator of the subtle sex-linked biases in the nervous system.


2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph M. Baker ◽  
Ning Liu ◽  
Xu Cui ◽  
Pascal Vrticka ◽  
Manish Saggar ◽  
...  

Abstract Researchers from multiple fields have sought to understand how sex moderates human social behavior. While over 50 years of research has revealed differences in cooperation behavior of males and females, the underlying neural correlates of these sex differences have not been explained. A missing and fundamental element of this puzzle is an understanding of how the sex composition of an interacting dyad influences the brain and behavior during cooperation. Using fNIRS-based hyperscanning in 111 same- and mixed-sex dyads, we identified significant behavioral and neural sex-related differences in association with a computer-based cooperation task. Dyads containing at least one male demonstrated significantly higher behavioral performance than female/female dyads. Individual males and females showed significant activation in the right frontopolar and right inferior prefrontal cortices, although this activation was greater in females compared to males. Female/female dyad’s exhibited significant inter-brain coherence within the right temporal cortex, while significant coherence in male/male dyads occurred in the right inferior prefrontal cortex. Significant coherence was not observed in mixed-sex dyads. Finally, for same-sex dyads only, task-related inter-brain coherence was positively correlated with cooperation task performance. Our results highlight multiple important and previously undetected influences of sex on concurrent neural and behavioral signatures of cooperation.


2018 ◽  
Vol 133 ◽  
pp. 189-201 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Sánchez-Marín ◽  
David Ladrón de Guevara-Miranda ◽  
M. Carmen Mañas-Padilla ◽  
Francisco Alén ◽  
Román D. Moreno-Fernández ◽  
...  

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document