Contrary to expectations, the original role of the breeds, average litter size, and life expectancy are independent of brain size. However, what surprised researchers is that the further a dog breed is genetically distant from wolves, the larger its relative brain size becomes. This confirms that domestication has also led to a decrease in brain size in dogs. In the case of dogs in a similar weight category, the brain volume is only about three-quarters of that, approximately 100 cm 3. In the end, data was gathered from 865 individuals representing 159 dog breeds, with 48 specimens representing wolves.Īccording to the results published in the journal Evolution, wolves have an average brain volume of 131 cm 3, associated with an average body weight of 31 kg.
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This invaluable collection was complemented by the Canine Brain and Tissue Bank, operated by ELTE for the past seven years, which enabled the verification of brain volumes calculated from skull images using actual brains.
in Kaposvár.īased on the CT images, veterinarian Kálmán Czeibert reconstructed the brains and determined their exact volume. CT scans of the skulls were performed by Medicopus Nonprofit Ltd. Tibor Csörgő, a senior research fellow at the Department of Anatomy, Cell and Developmental Biology at Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE), has been collecting skulls for decades. This is the first comprehensive study regarding the brain size of different dog breeds, and its preparation took several decades. Therefore, we hypothesize that the selective pressures on the brain can vary within the dog species, and we may find differences in brain size among breeds based on the tasks they perform or their genetic distance from wolves." "Different dog breeds live in varying levels of social complexity and perform complex tasks, which likely require a larger brain capacity. Niclas Kolm, at Stockholm University, focuses on brain evolution and the link between variation in brain morphology and behavior. Therefore, there is no need to sustain the energetically costly large brain, and the freed-up energy can be directed towards other purposes, such as producing more offspring, which is important for domesticated animals." In the safe environment provided by humans, there is no need to fear predator attacks or hunt for food. The likely reason for this is that the lives of domesticated species are simpler compared to those of their wild counterparts. "The brains of domesticated animals can be up to twenty percent smaller than those of their wild ancestors. László Zsolt Garamszegi, an evolutionary biologist at the Ecological Research Centre in Hungary, has been studying the evolution of brain size for a long time. Is there a correlation between brain size and the specific tasks for which a breed was bred? Are there differences, for example, between lap dogs and hunting dogs? Or is it more influenced by life expectancy and the challenges of offspring rearing? What we know for certain is that thinking and cognitive processes require a lot of energy, and maintaining a larger brain is costly. Comparing the various dog breeds can help answer some questions. Scientists have long been curious about the factors that affect brain size because the human brain is unusually large in comparison to body size.
Even today, the known four hundred dog breeds have developed relatively quickly and exhibit great diversity, making them a treasure trove for researchers interested in rapid changes within a species.
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