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PreprintCC BY 4.0arXiv

Big Brains and Changing Environments: Cause or Consequence?

  • Sian Heesom-Green
  • Jonathan Shock
  • Geoff Nitschke
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Abstract

Large brains are metabolically costly, and associations with changing environments do not imply they evolved there, as the Cognitive Buffer Hypothesis (CBH) would suggest. They may instead evolve in stable conditions and later facilitate colonization of changing environments. Using neuro-evolution in an artificial seasonal foraging task, we compared agents evolving exclusively in changing environments to agents first evolved in static environments before transitioning. Results show that larger neural networks in dynamic environments arise mainly from prior static evolution, achieving superior performance under unpredictable changes. Our results challenge strict CBH predictions, provide agent-based (computational) support for a colonization-based account and highlight the role of evolutionary history in brain size evolution.

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Cite

BibTeXRIS
BibTeX
@misc{heesomgreen2026brains,
  title = {{Big Brains and Changing Environments: Cause or Consequence?}},
  author = {Sian Heesom-Green and Jonathan Shock and Geoff Nitschke},
  howpublished = {arXiv},
  year = {2026},
  month = sep,
  doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2609.15569},
  eprint = {2609.15569},
  archivePrefix = {arXiv},
  url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.15569},
  note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY  - UNPB
TI  - Big Brains and Changing Environments: Cause or Consequence?
AU  - Sian Heesom-Green
AU  - Jonathan Shock
AU  - Geoff Nitschke
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/09/14
PB  - arXiv
DO  - 10.48550/arxiv.2609.15569
UR  - https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.15569
AB  - Large brains are metabolically costly, and associations with changing environments do not imply they evolved there, as the Cognitive Buffer Hypothesis (CBH) would suggest. They may instead evolve in stable conditions and later facilitate colonization of changing environments. Using neuro-evolution in an artificial seasonal foraging task, we compared agents evolving exclusively in changing environments to agents first evolved in static environments before transitioning. Results show that larger neural networks in dynamic environments arise mainly from prior static evolution, achieving superior performance under unpredictable changes. Our results challenge strict CBH predictions, provide agent-based (computational) support for a colonization-based account and highlight the role of evolutionary history in brain size evolution.
ER  -