AN EXPRESS METHOD FOR ESTIMATING MACROMORPHOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF SMALL MAMMALS' BRAIN

摘要

A relatively rapid method for studying the variability of the morphology of small mammals' brain is proposed. This method was developed to process the zoological material when investigating the intraspecific variability. The essence of the method consists in the evaluation of mass and size of major brain divisions (bulbus olfactorius, forebrain, neocortex, hippocampus, striatum, paleocortex, diencephalon, mesencephalon, cerebellum, and mielencephalon). The method can be used when the focus of the environmental studies are populations, but not individuals. It can be applied at the first phase of the research to identify major trends in intraspecific variability of the brain, and do not rule out the eventual use of conventional morphometric methods to better understand the differences found in intraspecific groups of animals.