Is hippocampal volume affected by specialization for food hoarding in birds

摘要: The hypothesis that spatial-memory specialization affects the size of hippocampus has become widely accepted among scientists. comes from studies on birds primarily in two families, Paridae (tits, titmice and chickadees) Corvidae (crows, nutcrackers, jays, etc.). Many species these families store food rely spatial memory to relocate cached items. is a brain structure thought be important for memory. Several report hoarding possess larger hippocampi than non-hoarding relatives, classified as large-scale hoarders have less specialized hoarders. We investigated largest dataset food-hoarding behaviour so far but did not find significant correlation between hippocampal volume. occurrence such an effect earlier may depend differences estimation volumes or difficulties categorizing degree both. To control discrepancies measurement methods we made our own estimates 16 individuals four been included previous studies. Our agreed closely with ones, suggesting are sufficiently consistent. Instead, main reasons found where assessing fact smaller subsets were compared study. results show volume cannot claimed basis present data families.