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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Sep 1, 2025

Extraction and Dissection of the Domesticated Pig Brain
09:16

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Published on: April 25, 2021

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The expensive-tissue hypothesis may help explain brain-size reduction during domestication.

Raffaela Lesch1, Kurt Kotrschal2, Andrew C Kitchener3

  • 1Institute of Animal Welfare Science, University for Veterinary Medicine, Austria.

Communicative & Integrative Biology
|August 12, 2022
PubMed
Summary

Domestic animals exhibit the domestication syndrome, a collection of traits like floppy ears. The neural crest hypothesis explains these, while the expensive-tissue hypothesis may explain reduced brain size in domesticated species.

Keywords:
Brain sizecranial volumegutintestineneural crest

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Area of Science:

  • Evolutionary biology
  • Animal genetics
  • Comparative anatomy

Background:

  • Domestic animals share a suite of traits known as the "domestication syndrome."
  • The neural crest/domestication syndrome hypothesis offers a potential unifying explanation for these traits.
  • However, this hypothesis has an indirect link to reduced brain size, a common feature in domestic animals.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To explore the potential of the expensive-tissue hypothesis in explaining brain size reduction during animal domestication.
  • To integrate the expensive-tissue hypothesis with existing theories on the domestication syndrome.

Main Methods:

  • Literature review and theoretical synthesis.
  • Comparative analysis of morphological and neurological traits in domestic animals.
  • Hypothesis testing through conceptual integration.

Main Results:

  • The neural crest hypothesis effectively explains many domestication syndrome traits.
  • The expensive-tissue hypothesis provides a plausible mechanism for the reduction of brain size in domestic animals.
  • Integrating these hypotheses offers a more comprehensive understanding of animal domestication.

Conclusions:

  • The expensive-tissue hypothesis complements the neural crest hypothesis by explaining brain size reduction.
  • A combined theoretical framework can better account for the diverse traits observed in domesticated animals.
  • Further research is needed to empirically validate the integration of these hypotheses.