A Review of Effects of Environment on Brain Size in Insects
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The Elephant Brain in Numbers
ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE published: 12 June 2014 NEUROANATOMY doi: 10.3389/fnana.2014.00046 The elephant brain in numbers Suzana Herculano-Houzel 1,2*, Kamilla Avelino-de-Souza 1,2, Kleber Neves 1,2, Jairo Porfírio 1,2, Débora Messeder 1,2, Larissa Mattos Feijó 1,2, José Maldonado 3 and Paul R. Manger 4 1 Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 2 Instituto Nacional de Neurociência Translacional, São Paulo, Brazil 3 MBF Bioscience, Inc., Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 4 School of Anatomical Sciences, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa Edited by: What explains the superior cognitive abilities of the human brain compared to other, larger Patrick R. Hof, Mount Sinai School of brains? Here we investigate the possibility that the human brain has a larger number of Medicine, USA neurons than even larger brains by determining the cellular composition of the brain of Reviewed by: the African elephant. We find that the African elephant brain, which is about three times John M. Allman, Caltech, USA 9 Roger Lyons Reep, University of larger than the human brain, contains 257 billion (10 ) neurons, three times more than the Florida, USA average human brain; however, 97.5%of the neurons in the elephant brain (251 billion) are *Correspondence: found in the cerebellum. This makes the elephant an outlier in regard to the number of Suzana Herculano-Houzel, Centro de cerebellar neurons compared to other mammals, which might be related to sensorimotor Ciências da Saúde, Universidade specializations. In contrast, the elephant cerebral cortex, which has twice the mass of the Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rua Carlos Chagas Filho, 373 – sala human cerebral cortex, holds only 5.6 billion neurons, about one third of the number of F1-009, Ilha do Fundão 21941-902, neurons found in the human cerebral cortex. -
How Welfare Biology and Commonsense May Help to Reduce Animal Suffering
Ng, Yew-Kwang (2016) How welfare biology and commonsense may help to reduce animal suffering. Animal Sentience 7(1) DOI: 10.51291/2377-7478.1012 This article has appeared in the journal Animal Sentience, a peer-reviewed journal on animal cognition and feeling. It has been made open access, free for all, by WellBeing International and deposited in the WBI Studies Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Ng, Yew-Kwang (2016) How welfare biology and commonsense may help to reduce animal suffering. Animal Sentience 7(1) DOI: 10.51291/2377-7478.1012 Cover Page Footnote I am grateful to Dr. Timothy D. Hau of the University of Hong Kong for assistance. This article is available in Animal Sentience: https://www.wellbeingintlstudiesrepository.org/ animsent/vol1/iss7/1 Animal Sentience 2016.007: Ng on Animal Suffering Call for Commentary: Animal Sentience publishes Open Peer Commentary on all accepted target articles. Target articles are peer-reviewed. Commentaries are editorially reviewed. There are submitted commentaries as well as invited commentaries. Commentaries appear as soon as they have been revised and accepted. Target article authors may respond to their commentaries individually or in a joint response to multiple commentaries. Instructions: http://animalstudiesrepository.org/animsent/guidelines.html How welfare biology and commonsense may help to reduce animal suffering Yew-Kwang Ng Division of Economics Nanyang Technological University Singapore Abstract: Welfare biology is the study of the welfare of living things. Welfare is net happiness (enjoyment minus suffering). Since this necessarily involves feelings, Dawkins (2014) has suggested that animal welfare science may face a paradox, because feelings are very difficult to study. -
THE CASE AGAINST Marine Mammals in Captivity Authors: Naomi A
s l a m m a y t T i M S N v I i A e G t A n i p E S r a A C a C E H n T M i THE CASE AGAINST Marine Mammals in Captivity The Humane Society of the United State s/ World Society for the Protection of Animals 2009 1 1 1 2 0 A M , n o t s o g B r o . 1 a 0 s 2 u - e a t i p s u S w , t e e r t S h t u o S 9 8 THE CASE AGAINST Marine Mammals in Captivity Authors: Naomi A. Rose, E.C.M. Parsons, and Richard Farinato, 4th edition Editors: Naomi A. Rose and Debra Firmani, 4th edition ©2009 The Humane Society of the United States and the World Society for the Protection of Animals. All rights reserved. ©2008 The HSUS. All rights reserved. Printed on recycled paper, acid free and elemental chlorine free, with soy-based ink. Cover: ©iStockphoto.com/Ying Ying Wong Overview n the debate over marine mammals in captivity, the of the natural environment. The truth is that marine mammals have evolved physically and behaviorally to survive these rigors. public display industry maintains that marine mammal For example, nearly every kind of marine mammal, from sea lion Iexhibits serve a valuable conservation function, people to dolphin, travels large distances daily in a search for food. In learn important information from seeing live animals, and captivity, natural feeding and foraging patterns are completely lost. -
The Neuroscience of Human Intelligence Differences
Edinburgh Research Explorer The neuroscience of human intelligence differences Citation for published version: Deary, IJ, Penke, L & Johnson, W 2010, 'The neuroscience of human intelligence differences', Nature Reviews Neuroscience, vol. 11, pp. 201-211. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn2793 Digital Object Identifier (DOI): 10.1038/nrn2793 Link: Link to publication record in Edinburgh Research Explorer Document Version: Peer reviewed version Published In: Nature Reviews Neuroscience Publisher Rights Statement: This is an author's accepted manuscript of the following article: Deary, I. J., Penke, L. & Johnson, W. (2010), "The neuroscience of human intelligence differences", in Nature Reviews Neuroscience 11, p. 201-211. The final publication is available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nrn2793 General rights Copyright for the publications made accessible via the Edinburgh Research Explorer is retained by the author(s) and / or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing these publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. Take down policy The University of Edinburgh has made every reasonable effort to ensure that Edinburgh Research Explorer content complies with UK legislation. If you believe that the public display of this file breaches copyright please contact [email protected] providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Download date: 02. Oct. 2021 Nature Reviews Neuroscience in press The neuroscience of human intelligence differences Ian J. Deary*, Lars Penke* and Wendy Johnson* *Centre for Cognitive Ageing and Cognitive Epidemiology, Department of Psychology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH4 2EE, Scotland, UK. All authors contributed equally to the work. -
INSECTA: LEPIDOPTERA) DE GUATEMALA CON UNA RESEÑA HISTÓRICA Towards a Synthesis of the Papilionoidea (Insecta: Lepidoptera) from Guatemala with a Historical Sketch
ZOOLOGÍA-TAXONOMÍA www.unal.edu.co/icn/publicaciones/caldasia.htm Caldasia 31(2):407-440. 2009 HACIA UNA SÍNTESIS DE LOS PAPILIONOIDEA (INSECTA: LEPIDOPTERA) DE GUATEMALA CON UNA RESEÑA HISTÓRICA Towards a synthesis of the Papilionoidea (Insecta: Lepidoptera) from Guatemala with a historical sketch JOSÉ LUIS SALINAS-GUTIÉRREZ El Colegio de la Frontera Sur (ECOSUR). Unidad Chetumal. Av. Centenario km. 5.5, A. P. 424, C. P. 77900. Chetumal, Quintana Roo, México, México. [email protected] CLAUDIO MÉNDEZ Escuela de Biología, Universidad de San Carlos, Ciudad Universitaria, Campus Central USAC, Zona 12. Guatemala, Guatemala. [email protected] MERCEDES BARRIOS Centro de Estudios Conservacionistas (CECON), Universidad de San Carlos, Avenida La Reforma 0-53, Zona 10, Guatemala, Guatemala. [email protected] CARMEN POZO El Colegio de la Frontera Sur (ECOSUR). Unidad Chetumal. Av. Centenario km. 5.5, A. P. 424, C. P. 77900. Chetumal, Quintana Roo, México, México. [email protected] JORGE LLORENTE-BOUSQUETS Museo de Zoología, Facultad de Ciencias, UNAM. Apartado Postal 70-399, México D.F. 04510; México. [email protected]. Autor responsable. RESUMEN La riqueza biológica de Mesoamérica es enorme. Dentro de esta gran área geográfi ca se encuentran algunos de los ecosistemas más diversos del planeta (selvas tropicales), así como varios de los principales centros de endemismo en el mundo (bosques nublados). Países como Guatemala, en esta gran área biogeográfi ca, tiene grandes zonas de bosque húmedo tropical y bosque mesófi lo, por esta razón es muy importante para analizar la diversidad en la región. Lamentablemente, la fauna de mariposas de Guatemala es poco conocida y por lo tanto, es necesario llevar a cabo un estudio y análisis de la composición y la diversidad de las mariposas (Lepidoptera: Papilionoidea) en Guatemala. -
The Brain of a Nocturnal Migratory Insect, the Australian Bogong Moth
bioRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/810895; this version posted January 21, 2020. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder. All rights reserved. No reuse allowed without permission. The brain of a nocturnal migratory insect, the Australian Bogong moth Authors: Andrea Adden1, Sara Wibrand1, Keram Pfeiffer2, Eric Warrant1, Stanley Heinze1,3 1 Lund Vision Group, Lund University, Sweden 2 University of Würzburg, Germany 3 NanoLund, Lund University, Sweden Correspondence: [email protected] Abstract Every year, millions of Australian Bogong moths (Agrotis infusa) complete an astonishing journey: in spring, they migrate over 1000 km from their breeding grounds to the alpine regions of the Snowy Mountains, where they endure the hot summer in the cool climate of alpine caves. In autumn, the moths return to their breeding grounds, where they mate, lay eggs and die. These moths can use visual cues in combination with the geomagnetic field to guide their flight, but how these cues are processed and integrated in the brain to drive migratory behavior is unknown. To generate an access point for functional studies, we provide a detailed description of the Bogong moth’s brain. Based on immunohistochemical stainings against synapsin and serotonin (5HT), we describe the overall layout as well as the fine structure of all major neuropils, including the regions that have previously been implicated in compass-based navigation. The resulting average brain atlas consists of 3D reconstructions of 25 separate neuropils, comprising the most detailed account of a moth brain to date. -
Localized Olfactory Representation in Mushroom Bodies of Drosophila Larvae
Localized olfactory representation in mushroom bodies of Drosophila larvae Liria M. Masuda-Nakagawaa,1, Nanae¨ Gendreb, Cahir J. O’Kanec, and Reinhard F. Stockerb aInstitute of Molecular and Cellular Biosciences, University of Tokyo, Yayoi 1-1-1, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0032, Japan; bDepartment of Biology, University of Fribourg, Chemin du Muse´e 10, CH-1700 Fribourg, Switzerland; and cDepartment of Genetics, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EH, United Kingdom Edited by Obaid Siddiqi, Tata Institute for Fundamental Research, Bangalore, India, and approved May 4, 2009 (received for review January 7, 2009) Odor discrimination in higher brain centers is essential for behav- of spatial stereotypy of odor representations in PNs in the calyx ioral responses to odors. One such center is the mushroom body has not yet been functionally defined, and the complexity of the (MB) of insects, which is required for odor discrimination learning. adult calyx makes it difficult to visualize the representation of The calyx of the MB receives olfactory input from projection odor qualities in single identified cells. neurons (PNs) that are targets of olfactory sensory neurons (OSNs) Drosophila larvae, which can perceive a wide variety of odors in the antennal lobe (AL). In the calyx, olfactory information is (14) and perform odor discrimination learning (15, 16), have an transformed from broadly-tuned representations in PNs to sparse olfactory system with the same basic architecture as adults but representations in MB neurons (Kenyon cells). However, the extent numerically much simpler. It contains only 21 unique OSNs (17), of stereotypy in olfactory representations in the calyx is unknown. -
Re-Emergence and Diversification of a Specialised Antennal Lobe Morphology in Ithomiine Butterflies
bioRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.10.13.336206; this version posted October 13, 2020. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under aCC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license. 1 Re-emergence and diversification of a specialised antennal lobe morphology 2 in ithomiine butterflies 3 4 Authors: 5 Billy J Morris1*, Antoine Couto1,2, Asli Aydin3, Stephen H Montgomery2*. 6 7 Affiliations: 1 8 Dept. of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge, CB2 3EJ 9 2 School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, 24 Tyndall Avenue, Bristol, BS8 1TQ 10 3 School of Medicine, Koc University, Rumelifeneri Yolu 34450 Sarıyer / Istanbul, Turkey 11 12 * corresponding authors: 13 BJM: [email protected] 14 SHM: [email protected] 15 16 Abstract 17 How an organism’s sensory system functions is central to how it navigates its environment and 18 meets the behavioural challenges associated with survival and reproduction. Comparing sensory 19 systems across species can reveal how facets of behaviour and ecology promote adaptive shifts 20 in the relative importance of certain environmental cues. The insect olfactory system is prominent 21 model for investigating how ecological factors impact sensory reception and processing. Notably 22 work in Lepidoptera led to the discovery of vastly expanded structures, termed a macroglomerular 23 complex (MGC), within the primary olfactory processing centre. These structures typically process 24 pheromonal cues and provide a classic example of how variation in size can influence the 25 functional processing of sensory cues. -
Seasonality and Brain Size Are Negatively Associated in Frogs
www.nature.com/scientificreports OPEN Seasonality and brain size are negatively associated in frogs: evidence for the expensive brain Received: 7 July 2017 Accepted: 20 November 2017 framework Published: xx xx xxxx Yi Luo1,2, Mao Jun Zhong1,2, Yan Huang1,2, Feng Li1,2, Wen Bo Liao1,2 & Alexander Kotrschal3 The challenges of seasonal environments are thought to contribute to brain evolution, but in which way is debated. According to the Cognitive Bufer Hypothesis (CBH) brain size should increase with seasonality, as the cognitive benefts of a larger brain should help overcoming periods of food scarcity via, for instance, increased behavioral fexibility. However, in line with the Expensive Brain Framework (EBF) brain size should decrease with seasonality because a smaller brain confers energetic benefts 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. Brain size varies dramatically between species1 and the recent decades have uncovered a variety of factors that drive this evolution2–10. -
Nest Defense and Conspecific Enemy Recognition in the Desert
P1: JRX Journal of Insect Behavior [joib] pp1033-joir-474318 November 6, 2003 13:37 Style file version Feb 08, 2000 Journal of Insect Behavior, Vol. 16, No. 5, September 2003 (C 2003) Nest Defense and Conspecific Enemy Recognition in the Desert Ant Cataglyphis fortis Markus Knaden1 and Rudiger¨ Wehner1,2 Accepted July 16, 2003; revised August 12, 2003 This study focuses on different factors affecting the level of aggression in the desert ant Cataglyphis fortis. We found that the readiness to fight against conspecific ants was high in ants captured close to the nest entrance (0- and 1-m distances). At a 5-m distance from the nest entrance the level of aggression was significantly lower. As the mean foraging range in desert ants by far exceeds this distance, the present account clearly shows that in C. fortis aggressive behavior is displayed in the context of nest, rather than food-territory defense. In addition, ants were more aggressive against members of a colony with which they had recently exchanged aggressive encounters than against members of a yet unknown colony. This finding is discussed in terms of a learned, enemy- specific label-template recognition process. KEY WORDS: aggression; Cataglyphis; “dear-enemy” phenomenon; enemy recognition; territoriality. INTRODUCTION The desert ant Cataglyphis fortis (Wehner, 1983) is the only species of ants inhabiting the vast plains of the North African salt pans. The colonies of this medium-sized monomorphic Cataglyphis species (body length, 5.5– 9.6 mm; head width, 1.1–2.4 mm; [Wehner, 1983; Dillier, 1998]) comprise only about 50 foragers, which search individually for dead arthropods (Wehner, 1983, 1987). -
Rev Iss Web Mec 13773 25-22 5765..5784
Molecular Ecology (2016) 25, 5765–5784 doi: 10.1111/mec.13773 Into the Andes: multiple independent colonizations drive montane diversity in the Neotropical clearwing butterflies Godyridina NICOLAS CHAZOT,*† KEITH R. WILLMOTT,‡ FABIEN L. CONDAMINE,§¶ DONNA LISA DE-SILVA,* ANDREV.L.FREITAS,**GERARDOLAMAS,†† HELENE MORLON,‡‡ CARLOS E. GIRALDO,§§ CHRIS D. JIGGINS,¶¶ MATHIEU JORON,*** JAMES MALLET,††† SANDRA URIBE‡‡‡ and MARIANNE ELIAS* *Institut de Systematique, Evolution, Biodiversite, ISYEB – UMR 7205 – CNRS MNHN UPMC EPHE, Museum national d’Histoire naturelle, Sorbonne Universites, 57 rue Cuvier CP50, F-75005 Paris, France, †Department of Biology, University of Lund, 223 62 Lund, Sweden, ‡McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity, Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA, §CNRS, UMR 5554 Institut des Sciences de l’Evolution (Universite de Montpellier), Place Eugene Bataillon, 34095 Montpellier, France, ¶Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta, T6G 2E9 Edmonton, AB, Canada, **Departamento de Zoologia and Museu de Zoologia, Instituto de Biologia, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Campinas, S~ao Paulo, Brazil, ††Museo de Historia Natural, Universidad Nacional de San Marcos, Lima, Peru, ‡‡IBENS, Ecole Normale Superieure, UMR 8197 CNRS, Paris, France, §§Grupo de Investigacion de Sanidad Vegetal, Universidad Catolica de Oriente, Rionegro, Antioquia, Colombia, ¶¶Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK, ***Centre d’Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Evolutive, CEFE, UMR 5175 CNRS – EPHE – Universite de Montpellier – Universite Paul Valery Montpellier, 34293 Montpellier 5, France, †††Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA, ‡‡‡Universidad Nacional de Colombia, sede Medellın, Medellın, Colombia Abstract Understanding why species richness peaks along the Andes is a fundamental question in the study of Neotropical biodiversity. -
VIEW Open Access Structural Aspects of Plasticity in the Nervous System of Drosophila Atsushi Sugie1,2†, Giovanni Marchetti3† and Gaia Tavosanis3*
Sugie et al. Neural Development (2018) 13:14 https://doi.org/10.1186/s13064-018-0111-z REVIEW Open Access Structural aspects of plasticity in the nervous system of Drosophila Atsushi Sugie1,2†, Giovanni Marchetti3† and Gaia Tavosanis3* Abstract Neurons extend and retract dynamically their neurites during development to form complex morphologies and to reach out to their appropriate synaptic partners. Their capacity to undergo structural rearrangements is in part maintained during adult life when it supports the animal’s ability to adapt to a changing environment or to form lasting memories. Nonetheless, the signals triggering structural plasticity and the mechanisms that support it are not yet fully understood at the molecular level. Here, we focus on the nervous system of the fruit fly to ask to which extent activity modulates neuronal morphology and connectivity during development. Further, we summarize the evidence indicating that the adult nervous system of flies retains some capacity for structural plasticity at the synaptic or circuit level. For simplicity, we selected examples mostly derived from studies on the visual system and on the mushroom body, two regions of the fly brain with extensively studied neuroanatomy. Keywords: Structural plasticity, Drosophila, Photoreceptors, Synapse, Active zone, Mushroom body, Mushroom body calyx, Learning Background neuronal types, the feed-back derived from activity ap- The establishment of a functional neuronal circuit is a pears to be an important element to define which connec- dynamic process, including an extensive structural re- tions can be stabilized and which ones removed [3–5]. modeling and refinement of neuronal connections. Nonetheless, the cellular mechanisms initiated by activity Intrinsic differentiation programs and stereotypic mo- to drive structural remodeling during development and in lecular pathways contribute the groundwork of pattern- the course of adult life are not fully elucidated.