Department of Human Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, 11 Divinity Ave, Cambridge, MA, 02138, USA.
Institute of Cytology and Genetics, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk, Russia.
Brain Struct Funct. 2023 Jun;228(5):1177-1189. doi: 10.1007/s00429-023-02648-5. Epub 2023 May 9.
Although the silver fox (Vulpes vulpes) has been largely overlooked by neuroscientists, it has the potential to serve as a powerful model for the investigation of brain-behavior relationships. The silver fox is a melanistic variant of the red fox. Within this species, the long-running Russian farm-fox experiment has resulted in different strains bred to show divergent behavior. Strains bred for tameness, aggression, or without selection on behavior present an excellent opportunity to investigate neuroanatomical changes underlying behavioral characteristics. Here, we present a histological and MRI neuroanatomical reference of a fox from the conventional strain, which is bred without behavioral selection. This can provide an anatomical basis for future studies of the brains of foxes from this particular experiment, as well as contribute to an understanding of fox brains in general. In addition, this can serve as a resource for comparative neuroscience and investigations into neuroanatomical variation among the family Canidae, the order Carnivora, and mammals more broadly.
尽管银狐（Vulpes vulpes）在很大程度上被神经科学家所忽视，但它有可能成为研究脑-行为关系的有力模型。银狐是红狐的一个黑化变种。在这个物种中，长期运行的俄罗斯农场狐狸实验导致了不同的品系被培育出来，表现出不同的行为。培育温顺、攻击性或没有行为选择的品系为研究行为特征背后的神经解剖变化提供了极好的机会。在这里，我们提供了一只来自常规品系的狐狸的组织学和 MRI 神经解剖参考资料，该品系没有进行行为选择。这可以为未来来自该特定实验的狐狸大脑研究提供解剖学基础，并有助于了解一般的狐狸大脑。此外，这可以作为比较神经科学以及研究犬科、食肉目和更广泛的哺乳动物的神经解剖变异的资源。
