ArticleRoyal Society open science2020
Selection for reduced fear in red junglefowl changes brain composition and affects fear memory.
Article in Royal Society open science, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers.
What it found
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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.
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Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed, 11 citations in OpenAlex.
- Comprehensive transcriptomics comparison reveals switch of gene networks in the brain during silkworm domestication.Insect science · 2026Article
- Article
- Selection for tameness alters play-like behaviour in red junglefowl in line with effects of domestication.Biology letters · 2025Article
- Domesticated chickens interact more with humans and are more explorative than Red Junglefowl.Frontiers in veterinary science · 2024Article
- Article
- Effects of domestication on responses of chickens and red junglefowl to conspecific calls: A pilot study.PloS one · 2022Article
- Article
- Cerebellum size is related to fear memory and domestication of chickens.Biology letters · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Brain size reduction is a common trait in domesticated species when compared to wild conspecifics. This reduction can happen through changes in individual brain regions as a response to selection on specific behaviours. We selected red junglefowl for 10 generations for diverging levels of fear towards humans and measured brain size and composition as well as habituation learning and conditioned place preference learning in young chicks. Brain size relative to body size as well as brainstem region size relative to whole brain size were significantly smaller in chicks selected for low fear of humans compared to chicks selected for high fear of humans. However, when including allometric effects in the model, these differences disappear but a tendency towards larger cerebra in low-fear chickens remains. Low-fear line chicks habituated more effectively to a fearful stimulus with prior experience of that same stimulus, whereas high-fear line chicks with previous experience of the stimulus had a response similar to naive chicks. The phenotypical changes are in line with previously described effects of domestication.
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Registered trials
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