ArticleNature communications2020
Brain morphology predicts social intelligence in wild cleaner fish.
Article in Nature communications, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 19 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
19 citing papers in PubMed.
- On the mirror test and the evolutionary origin of self-awareness in vertebrates.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2025Review
- Collective decision-making under predator threat is faster in guppy shoals selected for larger telencephalon size.Animal cognition · 2025Article
- Social fish have larger brains and greater relative telencephalon sizes: support for the social brain hypothesis from wild, intraspecific comparisons.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2025Article
- Larger Fish Have Larger Brains With More Neurons Across but Not Within Cohorts Raised in Different Growth Conditions.The Journal of comparative neurology · 2025Article
- From learning to reversal learning: How non-cleaner fish tackle the biological market task.Animal cognition · 2025Article
- The fish challenge to vertebrate cognitive evolution.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2025Review
- Article
- Article
- The endangered brain: actively preservingRoyal Society open science · 2023Review
- Experimental expansion of relative telencephalon size improves the main executive function abilities in guppy.PNAS nexus · 2023Article
- A marine cleaning mutualism provides new insights in biological market dynamics.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2023Review
- Brain morphology correlates of learning and cognitive flexibility in a fish species (Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2022Article
- Modelling how cleaner fish approach an ephemeral reward task demonstrates a role for ecologically tuned chunking in the evolution of advanced cognition.PLoS biology · 2022Article
- The psychological foundations of reputation-based cooperation.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2021Review
- Sex differences in the cognitive abilities of a sex-changing fish speciesRoyal Society open science · 2021Article
- Brain morphology predicts social intelligence in wild cleaner fish.Nature communications · 2020Article
- Relative telencephalon size does not affect collective motion in the guppy (Behavioral ecology : official journal of the International Society for Behavioral EcologyArticle
- Social complexity affects cognitive abilities but not brain structure in a Poeciliid fish.Behavioral ecology : official journal of the International Society for Behavioral EcologyArticle
- Flexible learning in complex worlds.Behavioral ecology : official journal of the International Society for Behavioral EcologyArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
It is generally agreed that variation in social and/or environmental complexity yields variation in selective pressures on brain anatomy, where more complex brains should yield increased intelligence. While these insights are based on many evolutionary studies, it remains unclear how ecology impacts brain plasticity and subsequently cognitive performance within a species. Here, we show that in wild cleaner fish (Labroides dimidiatus), forebrain size of high-performing individuals tested in an ephemeral reward task covaried positively with cleaner density, while cerebellum size covaried negatively with cleaner density. This unexpected relationship may be explained if we consider that performance in this task reflects the decision rules that individuals use in nature rather than learning abilities: cleaners with relatively larger forebrains used decision-rules that appeared to be locally optimal. Thus, social competence seems to be a suitable proxy of intelligence to understand individual differences under natural conditions.
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.