Brain size/Bibliography

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A list of key readings about Brain size.
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Builds on the expensive tissue hypothesis proposed by Aiello & Wheeler (1995) and provides evidence that the maximum rate of population increase, as defined by Cole (1954), is correlated negatively with brain size in mammals and birds, as long as parental care is not provided (and thus the energetic costs of feeding borne) by the mothers alone. Predicts that such allomaternal care increases the "maximum viable brain size" in a given family and that brain size evolution is strongly coupled to mass extinction events.
Based on data about brain size and body size in 120 families of birds, this study shows by means of path analysis that about 12% of within-family body size disparity can be explained by the average residual brain size within that family. Based on observations that brain size correlates with a number of cognitive measures, it is then concluded that behaviour might contribute to evolutionary diversification.
Provides a literature review based on "856 reports of interspecific kleptoparasitism by 197 species from 33 avian families", concluding that this behaviour correlates with brain size (and hence cognition), habitat and diet but not with body size or aggression.
Provides comparative histological data on the glia-neuron ratios in prefrontal area 9L of the neocortex in 18 anthropoid primate species and on the allometric scaling of this ratio with brain size, concluding that the value in humans is well within the range allometrically expected for an anthropoid primate with our brain size.
Shows a correlation between brain size and monogamy in primates.
Based on the analysis of published data on body mass, wing area and absolute brain size in 104 species of bats, the authors conclude that brain size is a trade-off between cognitive requirements imposed by the natural or social environment, and energetic constraints, particularly in relation to flight.
Investigated the correlation between neuroanatomical and cognitive measures in 36 sibling pairs, finding them to be small.
Proposed that the energetic costs of the resting metabolism of different organs within the body have to be balanced. Specifically, such a trade-off is hypothesized to have governed the increasing brain size during primate and human evolution, in concert with a decrease in the amount of digestive tissue. For a critique, see Hladik et al. (1999).
A classical paper on allometry, with comparative data and allometric coefficients for heart, lungs, liver, kidneys, adrenal glands, thyroid glands, pituitary glands, spleen, pancreas and brain, compiled separately for mammals in general and for primates in particular.