ArticleNature ecology & evolution2022
Neuron numbers link innovativeness with both absolute and relative brain size in birds.
Article in Nature ecology & evolution, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 36 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
36 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 81 citations in OpenAlex.
- The importance of migratory drop-off for island colonization in birds.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2024Pooled it
- T. rex cognition was T. rex-like-A critical outlook on diverging views of the neurocognitive evolution in dinosaurs.Anatomical record (Hoboken, N.J. : 2007) · 2026Review
- Endothermy, neuron counts, and other issues: Further remarks on neurocognitive evolution in fossil vertebrates.Anatomical record (Hoboken, N.J. : 2007) · 2026Article
- Article
- The flexible, the stereotyped and the in-between: putting together the combinatory tool use origins hypothesis.Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society · 2026Review
- The evolutionary consequences of behavioural plasticity.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Deficiency of vital organic nutrients in ecosystems limits brain development and fitness in wild fish.The Journal of experimental biology · 2026Article
- Quick on their paws: mice living in human-disturbed areas are faster problem-solvers than mice in strictly protected areas.Animal cognition · 2025Article
- Rethinking raptors: caracaras as a model for avian cognition in the wild.Animal cognition · 2025Review
- Homing and feral pigeons differ in hippocampal formation neuron size: a Golgi study.Brain structure & function · 2025Article
- Linking individual fitness to the evolution of cognition.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2025Review
- Evolution of diverse (and advanced) cognitive abilities through adaptive fine-tuning of learning and chunking mechanisms.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2025Article
- Adaptations to marine environments and the evolution of slow-paced life histories in endotherms.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Evidence of self-care tooling and phylogenetic modeling reveal parrot tool use is not rare.iScience · 2025Article
- The global determinants of climate niche breadth in birds.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Evolution of cellular architecture and function of the hippocampus: insights from the artificial selection experiment.Biology letters · 2025Article
- Innovative flavoring behavior in Goffin's cockatoos.Current biology : CB · 2025Article
- Palaeognath birds innovate to solve a novel foraging problem.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- The Relationship Between Relative Brain Size and Avoidance of Vehicular Collisions in Birds is Subtle.Zoological studies · 2025Article
- Seizing opportunities: Object neophobia as a factor mediating technical innovation in Goffin´s cockatoos?PloS one · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
12 authors at 6 institutions in 6 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
A longstanding issue in biology is whether the intelligence of animals can be predicted by absolute or relative brain size. However, progress has been hampered by an insufficient understanding of how neuron numbers shape internal brain organization and cognitive performance. On the basis of estimations of neuron numbers for 111 bird species, we show here that the number of neurons in the pallial telencephalon is positively associated with a major expression of intelligence: innovation propensity. The number of pallial neurons, in turn, is greater in brains that are larger in both absolute and relative terms and positively covaries with longer post-hatching development periods. Thus, our analyses show that neuron numbers link cognitive performance to both absolute and relative brain size through developmental adjustments. These findings help unify neuro-anatomical measures at multiple levels, reconciling contradictory views over the biological significance of brain expansion. The results also highlight the value of a life history perspective to advance our understanding of the evolutionary bases of the connections between brain and cognition.
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