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Estimating the heritability of cognitive traits across dog breeds reveals highly heritable inhibitory control and communication factors.

Publication ,  Journal Article
Gnanadesikan, GE; Hare, B; Snyder-Mackler, N; MacLean, EL
Published in: Animal cognition
September 2020

Trait heritability is necessary for evolution by both natural and artificial selection, yet we know little about the heritability of cognitive traits. Domestic dogs are a valuable study system for questions regarding the evolution of phenotypic diversity due to their extraordinary intraspecific variation. While previous studies have investigated morphological and behavioral variation across dog breeds, few studies have systematically assessed breed differences in cognition. We integrated data from Dognition.com-a citizen science project on dog cognition-with breed-averaged genetic data from published sources to estimate the among-breed heritability of cognitive traits using mixed models. The resulting dataset included 11 cognitive measures for 1508 adult dogs across 36 breeds. A factor analysis yielded four factors interpreted as reflecting inhibitory control, communication, memory, and physical reasoning. Narrow-sense among-breed heritability estimates-reflecting the proportion of cognitive variance attributable to additive genetic variation-revealed that scores on the inhibitory control and communication factors were highly heritable (inhibitory control: h2 = 0.70; communication: h2 = 0.39), while memory and physical reasoning were less heritable (memory: h2 = 0.17; physical reasoning: h2 = 0.21). Although the heritability of inhibitory control is partially explained by body weight, controlling for breed-average weight still yields a high heritability estimate (h2 = 0.50), while other factors are minimally affected. Our results indicate that cognitive phenotypes in dogs covary with breed relatedness and suggest that cognitive traits have strong potential to undergo selection. The highest heritabilities were observed for inhibitory control and communication, both of which are hypothesized to have been altered by domestication.

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Published In

Animal cognition

DOI

EISSN

1435-9456

ISSN

1435-9448

Publication Date

September 2020

Volume

23

Issue

5

Start / End Page

953 / 964

Related Subject Headings

  • Phenotype
  • Genetic Variation
  • Dogs
  • Communication
  • Cognition
  • Breeding
  • Behavioral Science & Comparative Psychology
  • Animals
  • 52 Psychology
  • 31 Biological sciences
 

Citation

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ICMJE
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Gnanadesikan, G. E., Hare, B., Snyder-Mackler, N., & MacLean, E. L. (2020). Estimating the heritability of cognitive traits across dog breeds reveals highly heritable inhibitory control and communication factors. Animal Cognition, 23(5), 953–964. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-020-01400-4
Gnanadesikan, Gitanjali E., Brian Hare, Noah Snyder-Mackler, and Evan L. MacLean. “Estimating the heritability of cognitive traits across dog breeds reveals highly heritable inhibitory control and communication factors.Animal Cognition 23, no. 5 (September 2020): 953–64. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-020-01400-4.
Gnanadesikan GE, Hare B, Snyder-Mackler N, MacLean EL. Estimating the heritability of cognitive traits across dog breeds reveals highly heritable inhibitory control and communication factors. Animal cognition. 2020 Sep;23(5):953–64.
Gnanadesikan, Gitanjali E., et al. “Estimating the heritability of cognitive traits across dog breeds reveals highly heritable inhibitory control and communication factors.Animal Cognition, vol. 23, no. 5, Sept. 2020, pp. 953–64. Epmc, doi:10.1007/s10071-020-01400-4.
Gnanadesikan GE, Hare B, Snyder-Mackler N, MacLean EL. Estimating the heritability of cognitive traits across dog breeds reveals highly heritable inhibitory control and communication factors. Animal cognition. 2020 Sep;23(5):953–964.
Journal cover image

Published In

Animal cognition

DOI

EISSN

1435-9456

ISSN

1435-9448

Publication Date

September 2020

Volume

23

Issue

5

Start / End Page

953 / 964

Related Subject Headings

  • Phenotype
  • Genetic Variation
  • Dogs
  • Communication
  • Cognition
  • Breeding
  • Behavioral Science & Comparative Psychology
  • Animals
  • 52 Psychology
  • 31 Biological sciences