Abstract
Despite decades of research, some of the most basic issues concerning the extraordinarily complex brains and behavior of birds and mammals, such as the factors responsible for the diversity of brain size and composition, are still unclear. This is partly due to a number of conceptual and methodological issues. Determining species and group differences in brain composition requires accounting for the presence of taxon-cerebrotypes and the use of precise statistical methods. The role of allometry in determining brain variables should be revised. In particular, bird and mammalian brains appear to have evolved in response to a variety of selective pressures influencing both brain size and composition. “Brain” and “cognition” are indeed meta-variables, made up of the variables that are ecologically relevant and evolutionarily selected. External indicators of species differences in cognition and behavior are limited by the complexity of these differences. Indeed, behavioral differences between species and individuals are caused by cognitive and affective components. Although intra-species variability forms the basis of species evolution, some of the mechanisms underlying individual differences in brain and behavior appear to differ from those between species. While many issues have persisted over the years because of a lack of appropriate data or methods to test them; several fallacies, particularly those related to the human brain, reflect scientists' preconceptions. The theoretical framework on the evolution of brain, cognition, and behavior in birds and mammals should be reconsidered with these biases in mind.
Highlights
Despite decades of research, some of the most basic issues related to the evolution of brain, cognition, and behavior are still unclear
In birds and mammals, in which most research has been conducted, there are no satisfactory answers to the following questions: Which factors control species differences in brain size and composition and what is, if any, the role of body size? How do brain size and composition influence species behavior? What is the nature of species differences in cognition and behavior? As a matter of fact, the increasing number of hypotheses being proposed on evolutionary neuroscience and comparative cognition is at odds with the paucity of theoretical background
There is a widespread belief that “ absolute brain size may partially explain species differences in intelligence, the fact that elephant and whale brains are several times larger than human brains gives us pause and suggests the need to control for body size” (Rilling, 2006)
Summary
Reviewed by: Jennifer Vonk, Oakland University, USA Mathieu Lihoreau, The University of Sydney, Australia Pavel Nemec, Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic. Some of the most basic issues concerning the extraordinarily complex brains and behavior of birds and mammals, such as the factors responsible for the diversity of brain size and composition, are still unclear. This is partly due to a number of conceptual and methodological issues. Bird and mammalian brains appear to have evolved in response to a variety of selective pressures influencing both brain size and composition. Intra-species variability forms the basis of species evolution, some of the mechanisms underlying individual differences in brain and behavior appear to differ from those between species.
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