Dog Brains have been Modified by Recent human Selection

[BillTre]

TL;DR Summary

MRI's of different dog breeds have shown differences in their brain structure that can be attributed to recent selection.

A new study (original article behind paywall, in short Science mag news article) has shown differences in dog brain anatomy.

• Different brain regions have been shown to be relatively larger or smaller, in different breeds.
• The behavioral differences that breeds were bred for correlated with the brain region differences and their presumed involvement in generating behavior.
• In a phylogeny of dog breeds (how they are appear to be related) shows most changes appeared at the more recent branches of the phylogeny:
  

  Importantly, a phylogenetic analysis revealed that most change has occurred in the terminal branches of the dog phylogenetic tree, indicating strong, recent selection in individual breeds.

Among the behaviors examined were:

• sport fighting: changes in areas involved fear, stress, and anxiety responses
• sight hunting
• hunt by scent
• guarding
• companionship

 

[Ygggdrasil]

I wonder if these data, combined with DNA sequencing information from the breeds, could help track down some of the genetics underlying these neuroanatomical changes. That info could potentially be very useful for those interested in studying brain development.