PFK Fishnews: Interactions shape cichlid brains

[AquaticQuotient.com]

Recent research provides evidence that the shape and size of cichlid brains is strongly influenced by environmental complexity and social interactions among conspecifics.

In a paper published in the latest issue of the journal Brain, Behavior and Evolution, Alexander Pollen, Adam Dobberfuhl, Justin Scace, Mathias Igulu, Susan Renn, Caroly Shumway and Hans Hofmann show that the size and shape of cichlid brains is strongly correlated with the heterogeneity of the environment in which the fishes live and the mode of social interactions with conspecifics.

The authors studied how brain shape and size change in seven species of ectodine cichlids from Lake Tanganyika: Asprotilapia leptura, Enantiopus melanogenys, Xenotilapia bathyphila, X. boulengeri, X. flavipinnis, X. ochrogenys and X. spiloptera.

They found that the sizes of the brain and the cerebellum (a region of the brain that plays an important role in the integration of sensory perception and motor output) are positively correlated to the number of species (one measure of habitat complexity) in a given habitat.

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