Selection for reduced fear in red junglefowl changes brain composition and affects fear memory

Abstract

Brain size reduction is a common trait in domesticated species when compared to wild conspecifics. This reduction can happen through changes in individual brain regions as a response to selection on specific behaviours. We selected red junglefowl for 10 generations for diverging levels of fear towards humans and measured brain size and composition as well as habituation learning and conditioned place preference learning in young chicks. Brain size relative to body size as well as brainstem region size relative to whole brain size were significantly smaller in chicks selected for low fear of humans compared to chicks selected for high fear of humans. However, when including allometric effects in the model, these differences disappear but a tendency towards larger cerebra in low-fear chickens remains. Low-fear line chicks habituated more effectively to a fearful stimulus with prior experience of that same stimulus, whereas high-fear line chicks with previous experience of the stimulus had a response similar to naive chicks. The phenotypical changes are in line with previously described effects of domestication.