Evidence map›Paper›PMID 27629025›Full record

ReviewProceedings. Biological sciences2016

Brain evolution and development: adaptation, allometry and constraint.

Stephen H Montgomery, Nicholas I Mundy, Robert A Barton

Open access · bronzeAbstract readReview
In one paragraph

Review 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 58 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
58citing papers in PubMed
18.4field-weighted citation impact, top 1% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

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.

2 · The registry

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.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

58 citing papers in PubMed, 130 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Article
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  5. Modality-specific long-term memory enhancement inPhilosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2025
    Article
  6. Embodied cognitive evolution and the limits of convergence.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2025
    Review
  7. Article
  8. Article
  9. A Novel Practical Session to Teach Concepts of Allometric Scaling of Brain Structures to Undergraduate Students Using Vertebrate Brains.Journal of undergraduate neuroscience education : JUNE : a publication of FUN, Faculty for Undergraduate Neuroscience · 2025
    Article
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  14. Review
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.

Stephen H MontgomeryDepartment of Genetics, Evolution and Environment, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, UK stephen.montgomery@cantab.net.ORCID 0000-0002-5474-5695
Nicholas I MundyDepartment of Zoology, University of Cambridge, St Andrews Street, Cambridge CB2 3EJ, UK.ORCID 0000-0002-5545-1517
Robert A BartonEvolutionary Anthropology Research Group, Durham University, Dawson Building, South Road, Durham DH1 3LE, UK.
Durham University · GBUniversity College London · GBUniversity of Cambridge · GB

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Phenotypic traits are products of two processes: evolution and development. But how do these processes combine to produce integrated phenotypes? Comparative studies identify consistent patterns of covariation, or allometries, between brain and body size, and between brain components, indicating the presence of significant constraints limiting independent evolution of separate parts. These constraints are poorly understood, but in principle could be either developmental or functional. The developmental constraints hypothesis suggests that individual components (brain and body size, or individual brain components) tend to evolve together because natural selection operates on relatively simple developmental mechanisms that affect the growth of all parts in a concerted manner. The functional constraints hypothesis suggests that correlated change reflects the action of selection on distributed functional systems connecting the different sub-components, predicting more complex patterns of mosaic change at the level of the functional systems and more complex genetic and developmental mechanisms. These hypotheses are not mutually exclusive but make different predictions. We review recent genetic and neurodevelopmental evidence, concluding that functional rather than developmental constraints are the main cause of the observed patterns.

Indexed as

Biological EvolutionAnimalsBody SizeBrainHumansPhenotypeSelection, Geneticadaptationallometrybrain evolutionconstraintdevelopment

Identifiers

PMID27629025
PMCPMC5031648
OpenAlexW2520236142

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

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.