Journal Article FZJ-2026-00737

http://join2-wiki.gsi.de/foswiki/pub/Main/Artwork/join2_logo100x88.png
Heritability of gray matter volume and asymmetry in chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and their association to cognitive abilities and tool use

 ;  ;  ;  ;

2026
Springer Heidelberg

Brain structure & function 231(1), 5 () [10.1007/s00429-025-03061-w]

This record in other databases:  

Please use a persistent id in citations: doi:  doi:

Abstract: Genetic studies have increasingly identified key mechanisms that underlie individual and phylogenetic variation in behavioral and brain phenotypes. Here, we used quantitative genetics to estimate heritability in whole brain and region-specific variation in gray matter in a sample of captive chimpanzees. We included the contributions of sex and age to individual variation in gray matter as well as their association with cognition and motor functions and found small to moderate heritability in average gray matter volume in the majority of brain regions. By contrast, weaker estimates of heritability were found when considering asymmetries in gray matter across brain regions. Age was inversely associated with gray matter volume for the frontal lobe and the basal forebrain after accounting for sex and relatedness of the chimpanzees. Chimpanzees that had higher cognition scores were found to have greater leftward asymmetries in the regions comprising the frontal lobe and basal forebrain component. Further, chimpanzees with better performance on a tool use task had higher gray matter volumes in the frontal and basal forebrain regions. However, no genetic associations were found between tool use performance or cognition and the average frontal or basal forebrain gray matter volumes or asymmetry.

Classification:

Contributing Institute(s):
  1. Gehirn & Verhalten (INM-7)
Research Program(s):
  1. 5251 - Multilevel Brain Organization and Variability (POF4-525) (POF4-525)

Appears in the scientific report 2026
Database coverage:
Medline ; Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 ; OpenAccess ; BIOSIS Previews ; Biological Abstracts ; Clarivate Analytics Master Journal List ; Current Contents - Life Sciences ; DEAL Springer ; Ebsco Academic Search ; Essential Science Indicators ; IF < 5 ; JCR ; SCOPUS ; Science Citation Index Expanded ; Web of Science Core Collection ; Zoological Record
Click to display QR Code for this record

The record appears in these collections:
Document types > Articles > Journal Article
Institute Collections > INM > INM-7
Workflow collections > Public records
Online First

 Record created 2026-01-20, last modified 2026-01-20


OpenAccess:
Download fulltext PDF
Rate this document:

Rate this document:
1
2
3
 
(Not yet reviewed)