Vincent Flavien

Thanks to the recent development of 3D imaging and morphometry of endocasts (brain volume of the cranial cavity), combined with evolutionary neuroscience of domestication, the project PigBrain aims to provide the first bioarchaeological study of brain evolution in an emblematic domestic species—the pig—throughout the millennia-long history of its domestication. This study spans from the arrival of the first domestic lineages in the Neolithic (5500 BC) in Europe, including specimens from the Mesolithic, period preceding the introduction of these lineages, up to the development of modern breeds during the Industrial era. Supported by a multidisciplinary consortium of zootechnicians, neuroscientists, and bioarchaeologists, PigBrain will (1) assess the current neuroanatomical consequences of domestication in this species in relation to cultural and economic dynamics over eight millennia of domestication in Europe, and (2) provide a new temporal understanding of how domestication has influenced brain evolution in terrestrial mammalian species. 

Key words: Animal domestication , pig, Endocast, Geometric-morphometrics, Neuroimaging, Neuroanatomy