Adaptation of brain regions to habitat complexity: a comparative analysis in bats (Chiroptera)
Adaptation of brain regions to habitat complexity: a comparative analysis in bats (Chiroptera)
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DOI：
10.1098/rspb.2004.2924
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发表时间：
2005-01-22
影响因子：
4.7
通讯作者：
Dechmann, DKN
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Safi, K;Dechmann, DKN
脊椎动物的大脑被组织成模块，这些模块有选择地处理来自感官输入的信息。因此，它们可能处于不同的进化压力之下。我们研究了环境对蝙蝠特定脑中心的影响。我们表明，在一个独立的对比分析，翅膀面积的一个物种校正身体大小与栖息地复杂性的估计。随后，我们比较了翅膀面积，作为栖息地复杂性的间接措施，与听觉，嗅觉和空间记忆相关的区域的大小，同时控制发育和体重。下丘，最大的皮层下听觉中心，表现出很强的正相关性与翼面积的回声定位蝙蝠。主嗅球的大小并没有增加翅面积，这表明嗅觉的需要可能不会增加在本地化的食物和方向在密集的栖息地。正如预期的那样，在所有蝙蝠中，更大的翅膀区域与更大的海马体有关。我们的研究结果表明，形态学适应与飞行和神经元的能力，反映了大脑区域的大小在类似的生态压力下共同进化。因此，栖息地的复杂性可能会影响和形状的感觉能力，在这个哺乳动物的顺序相互独立。
Vertebrate brains are organized in modules which process information from sensory inputs selectively. Therefore they are probably under different evolutionary pressures. We investigated the impact of environmental influences on specific brain centres in bats. We showed in a phylogenetically independent contrast analysis that the wing area of a species corrected for body size correlated with estimates of habitat complexity. We subsequently compared wing area, as an indirect measure of habitat complexity, with the size of regions associated with hearing, olfaction and spatial memory, while controlling for phylogeny and body mass. The inferior colliculi, the largest sub-cortical auditory centre, showed a strong positive correlation with wing area in echolocating bats. The size of the main olfactory bulb did not increase with wing area, suggesting that the need for olfaction may not increase during the localization of food and orientation in denser habitat. As expected, a larger wing area was linked to a larger hippocampus in all bats. Our results suggest that morphological adaptations related to flight and neuronal capabilities as reflected by the sizes of brain regions coevolved under similar ecological pressures. Thus, habitat complexity presumably influenced and shaped sensory abilities in this mammalian order independently of each other.