liu.seSearch for publications in DiVA
Change search
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • oxford
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf
Selection for Reduced Fear of Humans Changes Brain and Cerebellum Size in Red Junglefowl in Line with Effects of Chicken Domestication
Linköping University, Department of Physics, Chemistry and Biology, Biology. Linköping University, Faculty of Science & Engineering. (AVIAN Behavioural Physiology and Genomics Group)
Linköping University, Department of Physics, Chemistry and Biology, Biology. Linköping University, Faculty of Science & Engineering. (AVIAN Behavioural Physiology and Genomics Group)
Linköping University, Department of Physics, Chemistry and Biology, Biology. Linköping University, Faculty of Science & Engineering. (AVIAN Behavioural Physiology and Genomics Group)ORCID iD: 0000-0001-5491-0649
2023 (English)In: Brain Sciences, E-ISSN 2076-3425, Vol. 13, no 7, article id 988Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

A central part of the domestication syndrome is a reduction in relative brain size. In chickens, it has previously been shown that domesticated birds have smaller relative brain mass, but larger relative mass of cerebellum, compared to their ancestors, the Red Junglefowl. It has been suggested that tameness may drive the domestication syndrome, so we examined the relationship between brain characteristics and tameness in 31 Red Junglefowl from lines divergently selected during ten generations for tameness. Our focus was on the whole brain, cerebellum, and the remainder of the brain. We used the isotropic fractionator technique to estimate the total number of cells in the cerebellum and differentiate between neurons and non-neuronal cells. We stained the cell nuclei with DAPI and performed cell counting using a fluorescence microscope. NeuN immunostaining was used to identify neurons. The absolute and relative masses of the brains and their regions were determined through weighing. Our analysis revealed that birds selected for low fear of humans (LF) had smaller relative brain mass compared to those selected for high fear of humans (HF). Sex had a significant impact only on the absolute size of the cerebellum, not its relative size. These findings support the notion that selection for increased tameness leads to an enlargement of the relative size of cerebellum in chickens consistent with comparisons of domesticated and ancestral chickens. Surprisingly, the HF birds had a higher density of neurons in the cerebellum compared to the LF line, despite having a smaller cerebellum overall. These findings highlight the intricate relationship between brain structure and behavior in the context of domestication.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
MDPI , 2023. Vol. 13, no 7, article id 988
Keywords [en]
domestication; chicken; cerebellum
National Category
Neurosciences
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-196719DOI: 10.3390/brainsci13070988ISI: 001035057500001PubMedID: 37508920OAI: oai:DiVA.org:liu-196719DiVA, id: diva2:1789887
Available from: 2023-08-21 Created: 2023-08-21 Last updated: 2024-07-04

Open Access in DiVA

fulltext(1377 kB)42 downloads
File information
File name FULLTEXT01.pdfFile size 1377 kBChecksum SHA-512
593e5b69a0cde06b63bec297b24c934c032250709b7156917b42acb2f76611470ffc40635950f1d5d83df81f8a8a9a7d5283aa01c994075a81f972c2f88353d5
Type fulltextMimetype application/pdf

Other links

Publisher's full textPubMedCorrection

Search in DiVA

By author/editor
Gjöen, JohannaBarros Da Cunha, FelipeJensen, Per
By organisation
BiologyFaculty of Science & Engineering
In the same journal
Brain Sciences
Neurosciences

Search outside of DiVA

GoogleGoogle Scholar
Total: 44 downloads
The number of downloads is the sum of all downloads of full texts. It may include eg previous versions that are now no longer available

doi
pubmed
urn-nbn

Altmetric score

doi
pubmed
urn-nbn
Total: 102 hits
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • oxford
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf