ArticleScientific reports2017
Seasonality and brain size are negatively associated in frogs: evidence for the expensive brain framework.
Article in Scientific reports, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 17 papers.
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Who cites it
17 citing papers in PubMed, 56 citations in OpenAlex.
- Sex- and Male-Morph-Specific Variation in Brain Mass and Cell Number Scaling in Solitary Centris pallida (Hymenoptera: Apidae) Bees.The Journal of comparative neurology · 2026Article
- Parental investment and body temperature explain encephalization in vertebrates.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Invariant HVC size in female canaries singing under testosterone: Unlocking function through neural differentiation, not growth.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Smarter foragers do not forage smarter: a test of the diet hypothesis for brain expansion.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2024Article
- Does the expensive brain hypothesis apply to amphibians and reptiles?BMC ecology and evolution · 2023Article
- How hibernation in frogs drives brain and reproductive evolution in opposite directions.eLife · 2023Article
- Geographic Variation in Organ Size in a Toad (Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2023Article
- Anuran brain size predicts food availability-driven population density.Science China. Life sciences · 2023Article
- Testis Size Variation and Its Environmental Correlates in Andrew's Toad (Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2022Article
- Allometric model of brain morphology of Hemiculter leucisculus and its variation along climatic gradients.Journal of anatomy · 2022Review
- Neuroanatomical differentiation associated with alternative reproductive tactics in male arid land bees, Centris pallida and Amegilla dawsoni.Journal of comparative physiology. A, Neuroethology, sensory, neural, and behavioral physiology · 2021Article
- Brain size variation along altitudinal gradients in the Asiatic Toad (Ecology and evolution · 2021Article
- Testing hypotheses of marsupial brain size variation using phylogenetic multiple imputations and a Bayesian comparative framework.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2021Article
- Effects of weather and season on human brain volume.PloS one · 2021Article
- Mandibular musculature constrains brain-endocast disparity between sarcopterygians.Royal Society open science · 2020Article
- Frogs with denser group-spawning mature later and live longer.Scientific reports · 2019Article
- Modulation of Gene Expression in Liver of Hibernating Asiatic Toads (International journal of molecular sciences · 2018Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The challenges of seasonal environments are thought to contribute to brain evolution, but in which way is debated. According to the Cognitive Buffer Hypothesis (CBH) brain size should increase with seasonality, as the cognitive benefits of a larger brain should help overcoming periods of food scarcity via, for instance, increased behavioral flexibility. However, in line with the Expensive Brain Framework (EBF) brain size should decrease with seasonality because a smaller brain confers energetic benefits in periods of food scarcity. Empirical evidence is inconclusive and mostly limited to homoeothermic animals. Here we used phylogenetic comparative analyses to test the impact of seasonality on brain evolution across 30 species of anurans (frogs) experiencing a wide range of temperature and precipitation. Our results support the EBF because relative brain size and the size of the optic tectum were negatively correlated with variability in temperature. In contrast, we found no association between the variability in precipitation and the length of the dry season with either brain size or the sizes of other major brain regions. We suggest that seasonality-induced food scarcity resulting from higher variability in temperature constrains brain size evolution in anurans. Less seasonal environments may therefore facilitate the evolution of larger brains in poikilothermic animals.
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