Jan.
3, 2013 — Bigger brains can make animals, well, brainier, but that boost
in brain size and ability comes at a price. That's according to new evidence
reported on January 3rd in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication, in
which researchers artificially selected guppies for large and small brain
sizes.
The
findings lend support to the notion that bigger brains and increased cognitive
ability do go together, a topic that has been a matter of considerable debate
in recent years, said Niclas Kolm of Uppsala University in Sweden. They also
represent some of the first convincing evidence that large brains are
expensive, evolutionarily speaking.
"We
provide the first experimental evidence that evolving a larger brain really is
costly in terms of both gut investment and, more importantly, reproductive
output," Kolm said.
Together,
the findings strongly support the idea that relative brain sizes among species
are shaped through a balance between selection for increased cognitive ability
and the costs of a big brain.
The
results in guppies have important implications for us humans. After all, one of
the most distinctive features of the human brain is its large size relative to
the rest of the body.
"The
human brain only makes up 2 percent of our total body mass but stands for 20
percent of our total energy demand," Kolm said. "It is a remarkably
costly organ energetically."
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