The evolution of cerebellum structure correlates with nest complexity
Abstract
Across the brains of different bird species, the cerebellum varies greatly in the amount of surface folding (foliation). The degree of cerebellar foliation is thought to correlate positively with the processing capacity of the cerebellum, supporting complex motor abilities, particularly manipulative skills. Here, we tested this hypothesis by investigating the relationship between cerebellar foliation and species-typical nest structure in birds. Increasing complexity of nest structure is a measure of a bird's ability to manipulate nesting material into the required shape. Consistent with our hypothesis, avian cerebellar foliation increases as the complexity of the nest built increases, setting the scene for the exploration of nest building at the neural level.
Citation
Hall , Z J , Street , S & Healy , S D 2013 , ' The evolution of cerebellum structure correlates with nest complexity ' , Biology Letters , vol. 9 , 20130687 . https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2013.0687
Publication
Biology Letters
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
1744-9561Type
Journal article
Rights
© 2013 The Authors. Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/, which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited.
Description
This article was made open access through RCUK OA block grant funds. The work was financially supported by the BBSRC (BB/I019502/1), NSERC (PGSD3-409582-2011 to Z.J.H.) and ERC (232823 to S.E.S.).Collections
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