Maternal investment, life histories, and the costs of brain growth in mammals

Barton, Robert A.; Capellini, Isabella

doi:10.1073/pnas.1019140108

Cited by 182 publications

(234 citation statements)

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“…29). Although mutually reinforcing evolutionary processes have been proposed to account for this association (16), recent comparative analyses suggest that lifespan increases with brain size in mammals instead due to developmental costs: i.e., it requires a longer period of maternal investment to support offspring with greater natal and postnatal brain growth, requiring a slower life history strategy of which longer lifespan is a by-product (34). Primates, however, are potentially distinct from most mammalian taxa in their unusually large, neuron-dense brains (8)(9)(10)(11) and in the extensive occurrence of socially transmitted behavior exhibited in some lineages (e.g., refs.…”

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confidence: 99%

Coevolution of cultural intelligence, extended life history, sociality, and brain size in primates

Street

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et al. 2017

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Explanations for primate brain expansion and the evolution of human cognition and culture remain contentious despite extensive research. While multiple comparative analyses have investigated variation in brain size across primate species, very few have addressed why primates vary in how much they use social learning. Here, we evaluate the hypothesis that the enhanced reliance on socially transmitted behavior observed in some primates has coevolved with enlarged brains, complex sociality, and extended lifespans. Using recently developed phylogenetic comparative methods we show that, across primate species, a measure of social learning proclivity increases with absolute and relative brain volume, longevity (specifically reproductive lifespan), and social group size, correcting for research effort. We also confirm relationships of absolute and relative brain volume with longevity (both juvenile period and reproductive lifespan) and social group size, although longevity is generally the stronger predictor. Relationships between social learning, brain volume, and longevity remain when controlling for maternal investment and are therefore not simply explained as a by-product of the generally slower life history expected for larger brained species. Our findings suggest that both brain expansion and high reliance on culturally transmitted behavior coevolved with sociality and extended lifespan in primates. This coevolution is consistent with the hypothesis that the evolution of large brains, sociality, and long lifespans has promoted reliance on culture, with reliance on culture in turn driving further increases in brain volume, cognitive abilities, and lifespans in some primate lineages. cultural evolution | social learning | brain evolution | primates | phylogenetic comparative analysis

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confidence: 99%

Coevolution of cultural intelligence, extended life history, sociality, and brain size in primates

Street

Navarrete

Reader

et al. 2017

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

172

130

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“…There is evidence for both [87]. The involvement of the latter pathway is revealed by a fitness cost in terms of slower development and reduced reproductive rate [89][90][91], and the ubiquity of this effect suggests that in most lineages larger brains are bought at the expense of reduced immature growth and development and adult reproduction. In such lineages, the larger brain size must have improved adult survival sufficiently to be favoured by selection.…”

Section: Evolutionary Limitations On Brain Sizementioning

confidence: 99%

The costs and benefits of flexibility as an expression of behavioural plasticity: a primate perspective

Schaik

2013

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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Traditional neo-Darwinism ascribes geographical variation in morphology or in behaviour to varying selection on local genotypes. However, mobile and long-lived organisms cannot achieve local adaptation this way, leading to a renewed interest in plasticity. I examined geographical variation in orang-utan subsistence and social behaviour, and found this to be largely owing to behavioural plasticity, here called flexibility, both in the form of flexible individual decisions and of socially transmitted (cultural) innovations. Although comparison with other species is difficult, the extent of such flexibility is almost certainly limited by brain size. It is shown that brains can only increase relative to body size where the cognitive benefits they produce are reliably translated into improved survival rate. This means that organisms that are very small, face many predators, live in highly seasonal environments, or lack opportunities for social learning cannot evolve greater flexibility, and must achieve local adaptation through selection on specific genotypes. On the other hand, as body and brain size increase, local adaptation is increasingly achieved through selection on plasticity. The species involved are also generally those that most need it, being more mobile and longer-lived. Although high plasticity buffers against environmental change, the most flexible organisms face a clear limit because they respond slowly to selection. Thus, paradoxically, the largest-brained animals may actually be vulnerable to the more drastic forms of environmental change, such as those induced by human actions.

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“…[70]), only the tradeoff between brain size and 'production' (the combination of growth and reproduction) is empirically supported [64,70,71]. Reflecting this tradeoff, larger-brained mammals mostly have slower development [70,72].…”

Section: Box 1 How Organisms Pay For Increased Brain Sizementioning

confidence: 99%