ArticlePloS one2012
Division of labor in the hyperdiverse ant genus Pheidole is associated with distinct subcaste- and age-related patterns of worker brain organization.
Article in PloS one, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 34 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
34 citing papers in PubMed.
- Endoreduplication underlies body size variation in monomorphic ants.Frontiers in zoology · 2026Article
- The evolution of lepidopteran brain morphology.Journal of comparative physiology. A, Neuroethology, sensory, neural, and behavioral physiology · 2026Article
- Article
- The evolution of division of labour: preconditions and evolutionary feedback.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2025Review
- Article
- Differentiation of workers into soldiers is associated with a size reduction of higher-order brain centers in the neotropical termite Procornitermes araujoi.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Developmental biomechanics and age polyethism in leaf-cutter ants.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2023Article
- A multi-scale review of the dynamics of collective behaviour: from rapid responses to ontogeny and evolution.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2023Review
- Social Brain Energetics: Ergonomic Efficiency, Neurometabolic Scaling, and Metabolic Polyphenism in Ants.Integrative and comparative biology · 2022Article
- Behavioral performance and division of labor influence brain mosaicism in the leafcutter ant Atta cephalotes.Journal of comparative physiology. A, Neuroethology, sensory, neural, and behavioral physiology · 2022Article
- Insects Provide Unique Systems to Investigate How Early-Life Experience Alters the Brain and Behavior.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2021Review
- Eusociality and Senescence: Neuroprotection and Physiological Resilience to Aging in Insect and Mammalian Systems.Frontiers in cell and developmental biology · 2021Review
- Brain Size, Metabolism, and Social Evolution.Frontiers in physiology · 2021Article
- Macroevolutionary integration of phenotypes within and across ant worker castes.Ecology and evolution · 2020Article
- Social reprogramming in ants induces longevity-associated glia remodeling.Science advances · 2020Article
- The neuroplasticity of division of labor: worker polymorphism, compound eye structure and brain organization in the leafcutter ant Atta cephalotes.Journal of comparative physiology. A, Neuroethology, sensory, neural, and behavioral physiology · 2020Article
- Fungus-Growing Ants: Models for the Integrative Analysis of Cognition and Brain Evolution.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2020Article
- Division of labor and brain evolution in insect societies: Neurobiology of extreme specialization in the turtle ant Cephalotes varians.PloS one · 2019Article
- Recent Advances in Behavioral (Epi)Genetics in Eusocial Insects.Annual review of genetics · 2018Review
- Nasonia Parasitic Wasps Escape from Haller's Rule by Diphasic, Partially Isometric Brain-Body Size Scaling and Selective Neuropil Adaptations.Brain, behavior and evolution · 2017Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The evolutionary success of ants and other social insects is considered to be intrinsically linked to division of labor among workers. The role of the brains of individual ants in generating division of labor, however, is poorly understood, as is the degree to which interspecific variation in worker social phenotypes is underscored by functional neurobiological differentiation. Here we demonstrate that dimorphic minor and major workers of different ages from three ecotypical species of the hyperdiverse ant genus Pheidole have distinct patterns of neuropil size variation. Brain subregions involved in sensory input (optic and antennal lobes), sensory integration, learning and memory (mushroom bodies), and motor functions (central body and subesophageal ganglion) vary significantly in relative size, reflecting differential investment in neuropils that likely regulate subcaste- and age-correlated task performance. Worker groups differ in brain size and display patterns of altered isometric and allometric subregion scaling that affect brain architecture independently of brain size variation. In particular, mushroom body size was positively correlated with task plasticity in the context of both age- and subcaste-related polyethism, providing strong, novel support that greater investment in this neuropil increases behavioral flexibility. Our findings reveal striking levels of developmental plasticity and evolutionary flexibility in Pheidole worker neuroanatomy, supporting the hypothesis that mosaic alterations of brain composition contribute to adaptive colony structure and interspecific variation in social organization.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.