ArticleProceedings. Biological sciences2016
Absolute, not relative brain size correlates with sociality in ground squirrels.
Article in Proceedings. Biological sciences, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers.
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Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed.
- Extending the social cohesion hypothesis: is group social structure associated with dispersal in yellow-bellied marmots (Current zoology · 2024Article
- The allometry of brain size in Euarchontoglires: clade-specific patterns and their impact on encephalization quotients.Journal of mammalogy · 2024Article
- Multi-assay approach shows species-associated personality patterns in two socially distinct gerbil species.PloS one · 2024Article
- Neuron numbers link innovativeness with both absolute and relative brain size in birds.Nature ecology & evolution · 2022Article
- The Influence of Maternal Metabolic State and Nutrition on Offspring Neurobehavioral Development: A Focus on Preclinical Models.Biological psychiatry. Cognitive neuroscience and neuroimaging · 2022Review
- Play behaviour, not tool using, relates to brain mass in a sample of birds.Scientific reports · 2020Article
- Sociality does not drive the evolution of large brains in eusocial African mole-rats.Scientific reports · 2018Article
- A model for brain life history evolution.PLoS computational biology · 2017Article
- Virtual endocast of the early Oligocene Cedromus wilsoni (Cedromurinae) and brain evolution in squirrels.Journal of anatomy · 2017Article
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The social brain hypothesis (SBH) contends that cognitive demands associated with living in cohesive social groups favour the evolution of large brains. Although the correlation between relative brain size and sociality reported in various groups of birds and mammals provides broad empirical support for this hypothesis, it has never been tested in rodents, the largest mammalian order. Here, we test the predictions of the SBH in the ground squirrels from the tribe Marmotini. These rodents exhibit levels of sociality ranging from solitary and single-family female kin groups to egalitarian polygynous harems but feature similar ecologies and life-history traits. We found little support for the association between increase in sociality and increase in relative brain size. Thus, sociality does not drive the evolution of encephalization in this group of rodents, a finding inconsistent with the SBH. However, body mass and absolute brain size increase with sociality. These findings suggest that increased social complexity in the ground squirrels goes hand in hand with larger body mass and brain size, which are tightly coupled to each other.
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