Department of Integrative Biology, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada N1G 2W1
Department of Integrative Biology, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada N1G 2W1.
Proc Biol Sci. 2018 Nov 7;285(1890):20181971. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2018.1971.
Variation in spatial complexity and foraging requirements between habitats can impose different cognitive demands on animals that may influence brain size. However, the relationship between ecologically related cognitive performance and brain size is not well established. We test whether variation in relative brain size and brain region size is associated with habitat use within a population of pumpkinseed sunfish composed of different ecotypes that inhabit either the structurally complex shoreline littoral habitat or simpler open-water pelagic habitat. Sunfish using the littoral habitat have on average 8.3% larger brains than those using the pelagic habitat. We found little difference in the proportional sizes of five brain regions between ecotypes. The results suggest that cognitive demands on sunfish may be reduced in the pelagic habitat given no habitat-specific differences in body condition. They also suggest that either a short divergence time or physiological processes may constrain changes to concerted, global modifications of brain size between sunfish ecotypes.
栖息地之间空间复杂性和觅食需求的差异可能会对动物的认知能力产生不同的影响，进而影响大脑的大小。然而，与生态相关的认知表现和大脑大小之间的关系尚未得到很好的确定。我们测试了在由栖息于结构复杂的湖滨浅滩生境或更简单的开阔水层浮游生境的不同生态型组成的南瓜子太阳鱼种群中，相对大脑大小和脑区大小的变化是否与栖息地利用有关。使用湖滨生境的太阳鱼的大脑平均比使用开阔水层生境的太阳鱼大 8.3%。我们发现，在生态型之间，五个脑区的比例大小差异很小。结果表明，由于在身体状况方面没有特定的栖息地差异，浮游生境对太阳鱼的认知要求可能较低。这也表明，要么是分化时间较短，要么是生理过程可能限制了太阳鱼生态型之间大脑大小的协同、整体变化。
