1
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Lenaerts T, Saponara M, Pacheco JM, Santos FC. Evolution of a theory of mind. iScience 2024; 27:108862. [PMID: 38303708 PMCID: PMC10830857 DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2024.108862] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/26/2023] [Revised: 12/04/2023] [Accepted: 01/08/2024] [Indexed: 02/03/2024] Open
Abstract
Even though the Theory of Mind in upper primates has been under investigation for decades, how it may evolve remains an open problem. We propose here an evolutionary game theoretical model where a finite population of individuals may use reasoning strategies to infer a response to the anticipated behavior of others within the context of a sequential dilemma, i.e., the Centipede Game. We show that strategies with bounded reasoning evolve and flourish under natural selection, provided they are allowed to make reasoning mistakes and a temptation for higher future gains is in place. We further show that non-deterministic reasoning co-evolves with an optimism bias that may lead to the selection of new equilibria, closely associated with average behavior observed in experimental data. This work reveals both a novel perspective on the evolution of bounded rationality and a co-evolutionary link between the evolution of Theory of Mind and the emergence of misbeliefs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tom Lenaerts
- Machine Learning Group, Département d’Informatique, Université Libre de Bruxelles, 1050 Brussels, Belgium
- Artificial Intelligence Lab, Vakgroep Computerwetenschappen, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, 1050 Brussels, Belgium
- Center for Human-Compatible AI, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94702, USA
| | - Marco Saponara
- Machine Learning Group, Département d’Informatique, Université Libre de Bruxelles, 1050 Brussels, Belgium
| | - Jorge M. Pacheco
- Centro de Biologia Molecular e Ambiental, Universidade do Minho, 4710 - 057 Braga, Portugal
- Departamento de Matemática e Aplicações, Universidade do Minho, 4710 - 057 Braga, Portugal
- ATP-group, P-2744-016 Porto Salvo, Portugal
| | - Francisco C. Santos
- ATP-group, P-2744-016 Porto Salvo, Portugal
- INESC-ID and Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, IST-Taguspark, 2744-016 Porto Salvo, Portugal
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2
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van Leeuwen EJ, Staes N, Brooker JS, Kordon S, Nolte S, Clay Z, Eens M, Stevens JM. Group-specific expressions of co-feeding tolerance in bonobos and chimpanzees preclude dichotomous species generalizations. iScience 2023; 26:108528. [PMID: 38144453 PMCID: PMC10746535 DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2023.108528] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/06/2023] [Revised: 07/21/2023] [Accepted: 11/20/2023] [Indexed: 12/26/2023] Open
Abstract
Bonobos are typically portrayed as more socially tolerant than chimpanzees, yet the current evidence supporting such a species-level categorization is equivocal. Here, we used validated group-level co-feeding assays to systematically test expressions of social tolerance in sixteen groups of zoo- and sanctuary-housed bonobos and chimpanzees. We found that co-feeding tolerance substantially overlaps between the species, thus precluding categorical inference at the species level. Instead, marked differences were observed between groups, with some bonobo communities exhibiting higher social tolerance than chimpanzee communities, and vice versa. Moreover, considerable intergroup variation was found within species living in the same environment, which attests to Pan's behavioral flexibility. Lastly, chimpanzees showed more tolerance in male-skewed communities, whereas bonobos responded less pronounced to sex-ratio variation. We conclude that the pervasive dichotomy between the tolerant bonobo and the belligerent chimpanzee requires quantitative nuance, and that accurate phylogenetic tracing of (human) social behavior warrants estimations of intraspecific group variation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Edwin J.C. van Leeuwen
- Animal Behaviour and Cognition, Department of Biology, Utrecht University, Padualaan 8, Utrecht 3584 CA, the Netherlands
- Behavioural Ecology and Ecophysiology Group, Department of Biology, University of Antwerp, Universiteitsplein 1, 2610 Wilrijk, Belgium
- Centre for Research and Conservation, Royal Zoological Society of Antwerp, Koningin Astridplein 26, 2018 Antwerp, Belgium
- Department for Comparative Cultural Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
| | - Nicky Staes
- Behavioural Ecology and Ecophysiology Group, Department of Biology, University of Antwerp, Universiteitsplein 1, 2610 Wilrijk, Belgium
- Centre for Research and Conservation, Royal Zoological Society of Antwerp, Koningin Astridplein 26, 2018 Antwerp, Belgium
| | - Jake S. Brooker
- Psychology Department, Durham University, South Road, Durham DH1 3LE, UK
| | - Stephanie Kordon
- Psychology Department, Durham University, South Road, Durham DH1 3LE, UK
| | - Suska Nolte
- Animal Behaviour and Cognition, Department of Biology, Utrecht University, Padualaan 8, Utrecht 3584 CA, the Netherlands
| | - Zanna Clay
- Psychology Department, Durham University, South Road, Durham DH1 3LE, UK
| | - Marcel Eens
- Behavioural Ecology and Ecophysiology Group, Department of Biology, University of Antwerp, Universiteitsplein 1, 2610 Wilrijk, Belgium
| | - Jeroen M.G. Stevens
- Behavioural Ecology and Ecophysiology Group, Department of Biology, University of Antwerp, Universiteitsplein 1, 2610 Wilrijk, Belgium
- Centre for Research and Conservation, Royal Zoological Society of Antwerp, Koningin Astridplein 26, 2018 Antwerp, Belgium
- SALTO Agro- and Biotechnology, Odisee University College, Hospitaalstraat 23, 9100 Sint Niklaas, Belgium
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3
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Klarić TS, Gudelj I, Santpere G, Novokmet M, Vučković F, Ma S, Doll HM, Risgaard R, Bathla S, Karger A, Nairn AC, Luria V, Bečeheli I, Sherwood CC, Ely JJ, Hof PR, Sousa AM, Josić D, Lauc G, Sestan N. Human-specific features and developmental dynamics of the brain N-glycome. Sci Adv 2023; 9:eadg2615. [PMID: 38055821 PMCID: PMC10699788 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adg2615] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/12/2022] [Accepted: 11/07/2023] [Indexed: 12/08/2023]
Abstract
Comparative "omics" studies have revealed unique aspects of human neurobiology, yet an evolutionary perspective of the brain N-glycome is lacking. We performed multiregional characterization of rat, macaque, chimpanzee, and human brain N-glycomes using chromatography and mass spectrometry and then integrated these data with complementary glycotranscriptomic data. We found that, in primates, the brain N-glycome has diverged more rapidly than the underlying transcriptomic framework, providing a means for rapidly generating additional interspecies diversity. Our data suggest that brain N-glycome evolution in hominids has been characterized by an overall increase in complexity coupled with a shift toward increased usage of α(2-6)-linked N-acetylneuraminic acid. Moreover, interspecies differences in the cell type expression pattern of key glycogenes were identified, including some human-specific differences, which may underpin this evolutionary divergence. Last, by comparing the prenatal and adult human brain N-glycomes, we uncovered region-specific neurodevelopmental pathways that lead to distinct spatial N-glycosylation profiles in the mature brain.
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Affiliation(s)
- Thomas S. Klarić
- Department of Neuroscience, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA
- Genos Glycoscience Research Laboratory, Zagreb, Croatia
| | - Ivan Gudelj
- Department of Neuroscience, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA
- Genos Glycoscience Research Laboratory, Zagreb, Croatia
- Department of Biotechnology, University of Rijeka, Rijeka, Croatia
| | - Gabriel Santpere
- Department of Neuroscience, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA
- Hospital del Mar Research Institute, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
| | | | | | - Shaojie Ma
- Department of Neuroscience, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA
| | - Hannah M. Doll
- Waisman Center and Department of Neuroscience, School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA
- Department of Neuroscience, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA
| | - Ryan Risgaard
- Waisman Center and Department of Neuroscience, School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA
- Department of Neuroscience, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA
| | - Shveta Bathla
- Department of Psychiatry, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA
| | - Amir Karger
- IT Research Computing, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Angus C. Nairn
- Department of Psychiatry, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA
| | - Victor Luria
- Department of Neuroscience, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA
- Division of Genetics and Genomics, Boston Children’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA
| | | | - Chet C. Sherwood
- Department of Anthropology, The George Washington University, Washington, DC, USA
| | - John J. Ely
- Center for the Advanced Study of Human Paleobiology, The George Washington University, Washington, DC, USA
- MAEBIOS, Alamogordo, NM, USA
| | - Patrick R. Hof
- Nash Family Department of Neuroscience and Friedman Brain Institute, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA
| | - André M. M. Sousa
- Waisman Center and Department of Neuroscience, School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA
- Department of Neuroscience, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA
| | - Djuro Josić
- Department of Biotechnology, University of Rijeka, Rijeka, Croatia
- Warren Alpert Medical School, Brown University, Providence, RI, USA
| | - Gordan Lauc
- Genos Glycoscience Research Laboratory, Zagreb, Croatia
- University of Zagreb Faculty of Pharmacy and Biochemistry, Zagreb, Croatia
| | - Nenad Sestan
- Department of Neuroscience, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA
- Department of Psychiatry, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA
- Departments of Genetics and Comparative Medicine, Kavli Institute for Neuroscience, Program in Cellular Neuroscience, Neurodegeneration and Repair, and Yale Child Study Center, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA
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4
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Abstract
Our ancestors acquired morphological, cognitive and metabolic modifications that enabled humans to colonize diverse habitats, develop extraordinary technologies and reshape the biosphere. Understanding the genetic, developmental and molecular bases for these changes will provide insights into how we became human. Connecting human-specific genetic changes to species differences has been challenging owing to an abundance of low-effect size genetic changes, limited descriptions of phenotypic differences across development at the level of cell types and lack of experimental models. Emerging approaches for single-cell sequencing, genetic manipulation and stem cell culture now support descriptive and functional studies in defined cell types with a human or ape genetic background. In this Review, we describe how the sequencing of genomes from modern and archaic hominins, great apes and other primates is revealing human-specific genetic changes and how new molecular and cellular approaches - including cell atlases and organoids - are enabling exploration of the candidate causal factors that underlie human-specific traits.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alex A Pollen
- Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regeneration Medicine and Stem Cell Research, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA.
- Department of Neurology, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA.
| | - Umut Kilik
- Institute of Human Biology (IHB), Roche Pharma Research and Early Development, Roche Innovation Center Basel, Basel, Switzerland
- University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland
| | - Craig B Lowe
- Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC, USA.
| | - J Gray Camp
- Institute of Human Biology (IHB), Roche Pharma Research and Early Development, Roche Innovation Center Basel, Basel, Switzerland.
- University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland.
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5
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Gupta P, Nguyen TN, Gonzalez C, Woolley AW. Fostering Collective Intelligence in Human-AI Collaboration: Laying the Groundwork for COHUMAIN. Top Cogn Sci 2023. [PMID: 37384870 DOI: 10.1111/tops.12679] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/30/2022] [Revised: 06/12/2023] [Accepted: 06/12/2023] [Indexed: 07/01/2023]
Abstract
Artificial Intelligence (AI) powered machines are increasingly mediating our work and many of our managerial, economic, and cultural interactions. While technology enhances individual capability in many ways, how do we know that the sociotechnical system as a whole, consisting of a complex web of hundreds of human-machine interactions, is exhibiting collective intelligence? Research on human-machine interactions has been conducted within different disciplinary silos, resulting in social science models that underestimate technology and vice versa. Bringing together these different perspectives and methods at this juncture is critical. To truly advance our understanding of this important and quickly evolving area, we need vehicles to help research connect across disciplinary boundaries. This paper advocates for establishing an interdisciplinary research domain-Collective Human-Machine Intelligence (COHUMAIN). It outlines a research agenda for a holistic approach to designing and developing the dynamics of sociotechnical systems. In illustrating the kind of approach, we envision in this domain, we describe recent work on a sociocognitive architecture, the transactive systems model of collective intelligence, that articulates the critical processes underlying the emergence and maintenance of collective intelligence and extend it to human-AI systems. We connect this with synergistic work on a compatible cognitive architecture, instance-based learning theory and apply it to the design of AI agents that collaborate with humans. We present this work as a call to researchers working on related questions to not only engage with our proposal but also develop their own sociocognitive architectures and unlock the real potential of human-machine intelligence.
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Affiliation(s)
- Pranav Gupta
- Gies College of Business, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
| | - Thuy Ngoc Nguyen
- Department of Social & Decision Sciences, Carnegie Mellon University
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6
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Burkart JM, de Oliveira Terceiro F. Is there a human fear paradox? A more thorough use of comparative data to test the fearful ape hypothesis. Behav Brain Sci 2023; 46:e57. [PMID: 37154350 DOI: 10.1017/s0140525x22001844] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/10/2023]
Abstract
Grossmann's intriguing proposal can benefit from a more thorough integration of the primate literature, particularly on neophobia. Moreover, it directly leads to strong predictions in callitrichids, the only other cooperatively breeding primates beyond humans, which may indeed be met: Being more likely to signal distress than independently breeding monkeys, and responding to such signals with approach and affiliation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Judith M Burkart
- Department of Anthropology, University of Zurich, 8057 Zurich, Switzerland , https://www.aim.uzh.ch/de/ecg.html
- Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Language Evolution ISLE, University of Zurich, 8032 Zurich, Switzerland
| | - F de Oliveira Terceiro
- Department of Anthropology, University of Zurich, 8057 Zurich, Switzerland , https://www.aim.uzh.ch/de/ecg.html
- Department of Physiology and Behaviour, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, Rio Grande do Norte, 59010 Natal,
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7
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Zhang Y, Yang L, Pohl P, Xu F, Liu F. The white-browed laughingthrush ( Pterorhinus sannio) did not pass the mirror self-recognition test. ETHOL ECOL EVOL 2023. [DOI: 10.1080/03949370.2023.2178032] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 03/09/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- Yan Zhang
- Department of Public Health, Chengdu Medical College, Chengdu, Sichuan 610500, China
| | - Liqiong Yang
- School of Pharmacy, Chengdu Medical College, Chengdu, Sichuan 610500, China
| | - Peter Pohl
- Child Psychology Practice Garmisch, Garmisch-Partenkirchen 82467, Germany
| | - Fan Xu
- Department of Public Health, Chengdu Medical College, Chengdu, Sichuan 610500, China
| | - Fangfang Liu
- Art College, Southwest Minzu University, Chengdu, Sichuan 610041, China
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8
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Dedhe AM, Clatterbuck H, Piantadosi ST, Cantlon JF. Origins of Hierarchical Logical Reasoning. Cogn Sci 2023; 47:e13250. [PMID: 36739520 PMCID: PMC11057913 DOI: 10.1111/cogs.13250] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/30/2022] [Revised: 12/21/2022] [Accepted: 01/06/2023] [Indexed: 02/06/2023]
Abstract
Hierarchical cognitive mechanisms underlie sophisticated behaviors, including language, music, mathematics, tool-use, and theory of mind. The origins of hierarchical logical reasoning have long been, and continue to be, an important puzzle for cognitive science. Prior approaches to hierarchical logical reasoning have often failed to distinguish between observable hierarchical behavior and unobservable hierarchical cognitive mechanisms. Furthermore, past research has been largely methodologically restricted to passive recognition tasks as compared to active generation tasks that are stronger tests of hierarchical rules. We argue that it is necessary to implement learning studies in humans, non-human species, and machines that are analyzed with formal models comparing the contribution of different cognitive mechanisms implicated in the generation of hierarchical behavior. These studies are critical to advance theories in the domains of recursion, rule-learning, symbolic reasoning, and the potentially uniquely human cognitive origins of hierarchical logical reasoning.
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Affiliation(s)
- Abhishek M. Dedhe
- Department of Psychology, Carnegie Mellon University
- Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, Carnegie Mellon University
| | | | | | - Jessica F. Cantlon
- Department of Psychology, Carnegie Mellon University
- Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, Carnegie Mellon University
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9
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Klarić TS, Gudelj I, Santpere G, Sousa AMM, Novokmet M, Vučković F, Ma S, Bečeheli I, Sherwood CC, Ely JJ, Hof PR, Josić D, Lauc G, Sestan N. Human-specific features and developmental dynamics of the brain N-glycome. bioRxiv 2023:2023.01.11.523525. [PMID: 36711977 PMCID: PMC9882074 DOI: 10.1101/2023.01.11.523525] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/18/2023]
Abstract
Comparative "omics" studies have revealed unique aspects of human neurobiology, yet an evolutionary perspective of the brain N-glycome is lacking. Here, we performed multi-regional characterization of rat, macaque, chimpanzee, and human brain N-glycomes using chromatography and mass spectrometry, then integrated these data with complementary glycotranscriptomic data. We found that in primates the brain N-glycome has evolved more rapidly than the underlying transcriptomic framework, providing a mechanism for generating additional diversity. We show that brain N-glycome evolution in hominids has been characterized by an increase in complexity and α(2-6)-linked N-acetylneuraminic acid along with human-specific cell-type expression of key glycogenes. Finally, by comparing the prenatal and adult human brain N-glycome, we identify region-specific neurodevelopmental pathways that lead to distinct spatial N-glycosylation profiles in the mature brain. One-Sentence Summary Evolution of the human brain N-glycome has been marked by an increase in complexity and a shift in sialic acid linkage.
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10
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Abstract
The article reviews the history development of artificial neural networks (ANNs), then compares the differences between ANNs and brain networks in their constituent unit, network architecture, and dynamic principle. The authors offer five points of suggestion for ANNs development and ten questions to be investigated further for the interdisciplinary field of brain simulation. Even though brain is a super-complex system with 1011 neurons, its intelligence does depend rather on the neuronal type and their energy supply mode than the number of neurons. It might be possible for ANN development to follow a new direction that is a combination of multiple modules with different architecture principle and multiple computation, rather than very large scale of neural networks with much more uniformed units and hidden layers.
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Affiliation(s)
- Feng Shao
- Beijing Key Laboratory of Behavior and Mental Health, School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, China
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11
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Verspeek J, Stevens JMG. Behavioral and physiological response to inequity in bonobos (Pan paniscus). Am J Primatol 2023; 85:e23455. [PMID: 36419405 DOI: 10.1002/ajp.23455] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/21/2022] [Revised: 10/10/2022] [Accepted: 11/05/2022] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
Abstract
Inequity aversion (IA), the affective, cognitive, and behavioral response to inequitable outcomes, allows individuals to avoid exploitation and therefore stabilizes cooperation. The presence of IA varies across animal species, which has stimulated research to investigate factors that might explain this variation, and to investigate underlying affective responses. Among great apes, IA is most often studied in chimpanzees. Here, we investigate IA in bonobos, a reputedly tolerant and cooperative species for which few IA studies are available. We describe how bonobos respond to receiving less preferred rewards than a partner in a token exchange task. We show that bonobos respond to receiving less preferred rewards by refusing tokens and rewards, and by leaving the experimental area. Bonobos never refused a trial when receiving preferred rewards, and thus showed no advantageous IA. We also investigate the variability in the disadvantageous IA response on a dyadic level, because the level of IA is expected to vary, depending on characteristics of the dyad. Like in humans and chimpanzees, we show that the tolerance towards inequity was higher in bonobo dyads with more valuable relationships. To study the affective component of IA, we included behavioral and physiological measures of arousal: a displacement behavior (rough self-scratching) and changes in salivary cortisol levels. Both measures of arousal showed large variability, and while analyses on rough self-scratching showed no significant effects, salivary cortisol levels seemed to be lower in subjects that received less than their partner, but higher in subjects that received more than their partner, albeit that both were not significantly different from the equity condition. This suggests that although overcompensated bonobos showed no behavioral response, they might be more aroused. Our data support the cooperation hypothesis on an interspecific and intraspecific level. They show inequity aversion in bonobos, a reputedly cooperative species, and suggest that the variability in IA in bonobos can be explained by their socioecology. Most successful cooperative interactions happen between mothers and their sons and among closely bonded females. The limited need to monitor the partners' investment within these dyads can result in a higher tolerance towards inequity. We therefore suggest future studies to consider relevant socioecological characteristics of the species when designing and analyzing IA studies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jonas Verspeek
- Department of Biology, Behavioural Ecology and Ecophysiology Group, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium.,Centre for Research and Conservation, Royal Zoological Society of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium
| | - Jeroen M G Stevens
- Department of Biology, Behavioural Ecology and Ecophysiology Group, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium.,Centre for Research and Conservation, Royal Zoological Society of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium.,SALTO, Agro- and Biotechnology, Odisee University College, Sint Niklaas, Belgium
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12
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Nolte S, Sterck EHM, van Leeuwen EJC. Does tolerance allow bonobos to outperform chimpanzees on a cooperative task? A conceptual replication of Hare et al., 2007. R Soc Open Sci 2023; 10:220194. [PMID: 36686553 PMCID: PMC9810421 DOI: 10.1098/rsos.220194] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/15/2022] [Accepted: 12/02/2022] [Indexed: 06/17/2023]
Abstract
Across various taxa, social tolerance is thought to facilitate cooperation, and many species are treated as having species-specific patterns of social tolerance. Yet studies that assess wild and captive bonobos and chimpanzees result in contrasting findings. By replicating a cornerstone experimental study on tolerance and cooperation in bonobos and chimpanzees (Hare et al. 2007 Cur. Biol. 17, 619-623 (doi:10.1016/j.cub.2007.02.040)), we aim to further our understanding of current discrepant findings. We tested bonobos and chimpanzees housed at the same facility in a co-feeding and cooperation task. Food was placed on dishes located on both ends or in the middle of a platform. In the co-feeding task, the tray was simply made available to the ape duos, whereas in the cooperation task the apes had to simultaneously pull at both ends of a rope attached to the platform to retrieve the food. By contrast to the published findings, bonobos and chimpanzees co-fed to a similar degree, indicating a similar level of tolerance. However, bonobos cooperated more than chimpanzees when the food was monopolizable, which replicates the original study. Our findings call into question the interpretation that at the species level bonobos cooperate to a higher degree because they are inherently more tolerant.
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Affiliation(s)
- Suska Nolte
- Animal Behaviour and Cognition, Department of Biology, University Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands
- Department of Comparative Cultural Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Elisabeth H. M. Sterck
- Animal Behaviour and Cognition, Department of Biology, University Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands
- Animal Science Department, Biomedical Primate Research Centre, Rijswijk, The Netherlands
| | - Edwin J. C. van Leeuwen
- Animal Behaviour and Cognition, Department of Biology, University Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands
- Department of Comparative Cultural Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
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13
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Lemaitre H, Le Guen Y, Tilot AK, Stein JL, Philippe C, Mangin JF, Fisher SE, Frouin V. Genetic variations within human gained enhancer elements affect human brain sulcal morphology. Neuroimage 2023; 265:119773. [PMID: 36442731 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2022.119773] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/18/2022] [Revised: 10/07/2022] [Accepted: 11/24/2022] [Indexed: 11/26/2022] Open
Abstract
The expansion of the cerebral cortex is one of the most distinctive changes in the evolution of the human brain. Cortical expansion and related increases in cortical folding may have contributed to emergence of our capacities for high-order cognitive abilities. Molecular analysis of humans, archaic hominins, and non-human primates has allowed identification of chromosomal regions showing evolutionary changes at different points of our phylogenetic history. In this study, we assessed the contributions of genomic annotations spanning 30 million years to human sulcal morphology measured via MRI in more than 18,000 participants from the UK Biobank. We found that variation within brain-expressed human gained enhancers, regulatory genetic elements that emerged since our last common ancestor with Old World monkeys, explained more trait heritability than expected for the left and right calloso-marginal posterior fissures and the right central sulcus. Intriguingly, these are sulci that have been previously linked to the evolution of locomotion in primates and later on bipedalism in our hominin ancestors.
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Affiliation(s)
- Herve Lemaitre
- Institut des Maladies Neurodégénératives, CNRS UMR 5293, Université de bordeaux, Centre Broca Nouvelle-Aquitaine, Bordeaux, France.
| | - Yann Le Guen
- Université Paris-Saclay, CEA, CNRS, Neurospin, Baobab UMR 9027, Gif-sur-Yvette, France
| | - Amanda K Tilot
- Language and Genetics Department, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, Netherlands
| | - Jason L Stein
- Department of Genetics and the UNC Neuroscience Center, UNC-Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, United States of America
| | - Cathy Philippe
- Université Paris-Saclay, CEA, CNRS, Neurospin, Baobab UMR 9027, Gif-sur-Yvette, France
| | - Jean-François Mangin
- Université Paris-Saclay, CEA, CNRS, Neurospin, Baobab UMR 9027, Gif-sur-Yvette, France
| | - Simon E Fisher
- Language and Genetics Department, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, Netherlands; Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands
| | - Vincent Frouin
- Université Paris-Saclay, CEA, CNRS, Neurospin, Baobab UMR 9027, Gif-sur-Yvette, France
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Kaczanowska J, Ganglberger F, Chernomor O, Kargl D, Galik B, Hess A, Moodley Y, von Haeseler A, Bühler K, Haubensak W. Molecular archaeology of human cognitive traits. Cell Rep 2022; 40:111287. [PMID: 36044840 DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2022.111287] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/24/2019] [Revised: 05/20/2022] [Accepted: 08/05/2022] [Indexed: 01/06/2023] Open
Abstract
The brains and minds of our human ancestors remain inaccessible for experimental exploration. Therefore, we reconstructed human cognitive evolution by projecting nonsynonymous/synonymous rate ratios (ω values) in mammalian phylogeny onto the anatomically modern human (AMH) brain. This atlas retraces human neurogenetic selection and allows imputation of ancestral evolution in task-related functional networks (FNs). Adaptive evolution (high ω values) is associated with excitatory neurons and synaptic function. It shifted from FNs for motor control in anthropoid ancestry (60-41 mya) to attention in ancient hominoids (26-19 mya) and hominids (19-7.4 mya). Selection in FNs for language emerged with an early hominin ancestor (7.4-1.7 mya) and was later accompanied by adaptive evolution in FNs for strategic thinking during recent (0.8 mya-present) speciation of AMHs. This pattern mirrors increasingly complex cognitive demands and suggests that co-selection for language alongside strategic thinking may have separated AMHs from their archaic Denisovan and Neanderthal relatives.
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Affiliation(s)
- Joanna Kaczanowska
- Research Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP), Vienna Biocenter (VBC), Campus-Vienna-Biocenter 1, 1030 Vienna, Austria
| | | | - Olga Chernomor
- Center for Integrative Bioinformatics Vienna (CIBIV), Max Perutz Labs, University of Vienna, Medical University of Vienna, Dr. Bohr Gasse 9, 1030 Vienna, Austria
| | - Dominic Kargl
- Research Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP), Vienna Biocenter (VBC), Campus-Vienna-Biocenter 1, 1030 Vienna, Austria; Department of Neuronal Cell Biology, Center for Brain Research, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
| | - Bence Galik
- Bioinformatics and Scientific Computing, Vienna Biocenter Core Facilities (VBCF), Dr. Bohr Gasse 3, 1030 Vienna, Austria
| | - Andreas Hess
- Institute of Experimental and Clinical Pharmacology and Toxicology, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Fahrstrasse 17, 91054 Erlangen, Germany
| | - Yoshan Moodley
- Department of Zoology, University of Venda, Private Bag X5050, Thohoyandou, Republic of South Africa
| | - Arndt von Haeseler
- Center for Integrative Bioinformatics Vienna (CIBIV), Max Perutz Labs, University of Vienna, Medical University of Vienna, Dr. Bohr Gasse 9, 1030 Vienna, Austria; Faculty of Computer Science, University of Vienna, Währinger Str. 29, 1090 Vienna, Austria
| | - Katja Bühler
- VRVis Research Center, Donau-City Strasse 11, 1220 Vienna, Austria
| | - Wulf Haubensak
- Research Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP), Vienna Biocenter (VBC), Campus-Vienna-Biocenter 1, 1030 Vienna, Austria; Department of Neuronal Cell Biology, Center for Brain Research, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
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Verspeek J, van Leeuwen EJC, Laméris DW, Stevens JMG. Self-interest precludes prosocial juice provisioning in a free choice group experiment in bonobos. Primates 2022; 63:603-610. [PMID: 35947244 DOI: 10.1007/s10329-022-01008-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/03/2021] [Accepted: 08/01/2022] [Indexed: 10/15/2022]
Abstract
Previous studies on prosociality in bonobos have reported contrasting results, which might partly be explained by differences in experimental contexts. In this study, we implement a free choice group experiment in which bonobos can provide fruit juice to their group members at a low cost for themselves. Four out of five bonobos passed a training phase and understood the setup and provisioned fruit juice in a total of 17 dyads. We show that even in this egalitarian group with a shallow hierarchy, the majority of pushing was done by the alpha female, who monopolized the setup and provided most juice to two adult females, her closest social partners. Nonetheless, the bonobos in this study pushed less frequently than the chimpanzees in the original juice-paradigm study, suggesting that bonobos might be less likely than chimpanzees to provide benefits to group members. Moreover, in half of the pushing acts, subjects obtained juice for themselves, suggesting that juice provisioning was partly driven by self-regarding behavior. Our study indicates that a more nuanced view on the prosocial food provisioning nature of bonobos is warranted but based on this case study, we suggest that the observed sex differences in providing food to friends corresponds with the socio-ecological sex difference in cooperative interactions in wild and zoo-housed bonobos.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jonas Verspeek
- Behavioural Ecology and Ecophysiology Group, Department of Biology, University of Antwerp, Universiteitsplein 1, Antwerp (Wilrijk), 2610, Antwerp, Belgium. .,Centre for Research and Conservation, Royal Zoological Society of Antwerp, K. Astridplein 26, 2018, Antwerp, Belgium.
| | - Edwin J C van Leeuwen
- Behavioural Ecology and Ecophysiology Group, Department of Biology, University of Antwerp, Universiteitsplein 1, Antwerp (Wilrijk), 2610, Antwerp, Belgium.,Centre for Research and Conservation, Royal Zoological Society of Antwerp, K. Astridplein 26, 2018, Antwerp, Belgium
| | - Daan W Laméris
- Behavioural Ecology and Ecophysiology Group, Department of Biology, University of Antwerp, Universiteitsplein 1, Antwerp (Wilrijk), 2610, Antwerp, Belgium.,Centre for Research and Conservation, Royal Zoological Society of Antwerp, K. Astridplein 26, 2018, Antwerp, Belgium
| | - Jeroen M G Stevens
- Behavioural Ecology and Ecophysiology Group, Department of Biology, University of Antwerp, Universiteitsplein 1, Antwerp (Wilrijk), 2610, Antwerp, Belgium.,Centre for Research and Conservation, Royal Zoological Society of Antwerp, K. Astridplein 26, 2018, Antwerp, Belgium.,SALTO, Agro- and Biotechnology, Odisee University College, Sint-Niklaas, Belgium
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Bhattacharyya U, Bhatia T, Deshpande SN, Thelma BK. Genetic variations in evolutionary accelerated regions disrupt cognition in schizophrenia. Psychiatry Res 2022; 314:114586. [PMID: 35623238 DOI: 10.1016/j.psychres.2022.114586] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/19/2021] [Revised: 04/03/2022] [Accepted: 04/30/2022] [Indexed: 02/03/2023]
Abstract
Cognition is believed to be a product of human evolution, while schizophrenia is ascribed as the by-product with cognitive impairment as it's genetically mediated endophenotype. Genomic loci associated with these traits are enriched with recent evolutionary markers such as Human accelerated regions (HARs). HARs are markedly different in humans since their divergence with chimpanzees and mostly regulate gene expression by binding to transcription factors and/or modulating chromatin interactions. We hypothesize that variants within HARs may alter such functions and thus contribute to disease pathogenesis. 49 systematically prioritized variants from 2737 genome-wide HARs were genotyped in a north-Indian schizophrenia cohort (331 cases, 235 controls). Six variants were significantly associated with cognitive impairment in schizophrenia, thirteen with general cognition in healthy individuals. These variants were mapped to 122 genes; predicted to alter 79 transcription factors binding sites and overlapped with promoters, enhancers and/or repressors. These genes and TFs are implicated in neurocognitive phenotypes, autism, schizophrenia and bipolar disorders; a few are targets of common or repurposable antipsychotics suggesting their draggability; and enriched for immune response and brain developmental pathways. Immune response has been more strongly targeted by natural selection during human evolution and has a prominent role in neurodevelopment. Thus, its disruption may have deleterious consequences for neuronal and cognitive functions. Importantly, among the 15 associated SNPs, 12 showed association in several independent GWASs of different neurocognitive functions. Further analysis of HARs may be valuable to understand their role in cognition biology and identify improved therapeutics for schizophrenia.
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Karbownik MS, Mokros Ł, Dobielska M, Kowalczyk M, Kowalczyk E. Association Between Consumption of Fermented Food and Food-Derived Prebiotics With Cognitive Performance, Depressive, and Anxiety Symptoms in Psychiatrically Healthy Medical Students Under Psychological Stress: A Prospective Cohort Study. Front Nutr 2022; 9:850249. [PMID: 35308282 PMCID: PMC8929173 DOI: 10.3389/fnut.2022.850249] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/07/2022] [Accepted: 01/26/2022] [Indexed: 12/22/2022] Open
Abstract
Background Gut microbiota-based therapeutic strategies, such as probiotic and prebiotic preparations, may benefit mental health. However, commonly consumed fermented and prebiotic-containing foods have not been well-tested. The aim of the present study was to determine whether consumption of fermented food and food-derived prebiotics is associated with cognitive performance, depressive, and anxiety symptoms in psychiatrically healthy medical students under psychological stress. Methods The study protocol with data analysis plan was prospectively registered. Food consumption was evaluated with a 7-day dietary record. Cognitive performance was modeled with academic examination performance in relation to subject knowledge. Pre-exam depressive and anxiety symptoms were assessed with the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 and Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7, respectively. Results In total, 372 medical students (22.7 ± 1.1 years of age, 66% female) completed the study. No relationship was observed between cognitive performance under stress and either fermented food (adjusted β 0.02, 95% CI −0.07–0.11, p = 0.63) or food-derived prebiotics consumption (adjusted β −0.00, 95% CI −0.09–0.09, p = 0.99). High intake of fermented food was associated with more severe depressive (adjusted β 0.11, 95% CI 0.01–0.20, p = 0.032) and anxiety symptoms under stress (adjusted β 0.13, 95% CI 0.04–0.22, p = 0.0065); however, no such link was observed for food-derived prebiotics (adjusted β 0.03, 95% CI −0.07–0.13, p = 0.50 and −0.01, 95% CI −0.11–0.08, p = 0.83, for depression and anxiety, respectively). Conclusions Under psychological stress in medical students, consumption of fermented food and food-derived prebiotics appears to be not associated with cognitive performance. High intake of fermented food, but not food-derived prebiotics, may be associated with severity of depressive and anxiety symptoms. The safety of fermented food in this regard therefore requires further clarification.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michał Seweryn Karbownik
- Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Medical University of Lodz, Łódź, Poland
- *Correspondence: Michał Seweryn Karbownik
| | - Łukasz Mokros
- Department of Clinical Pharmacology, Medical University of Lodz, Łódź, Poland
| | - Maria Dobielska
- Students' Research Club, Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Medical University of Lodz, Łódź, Poland
| | | | - Edward Kowalczyk
- Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Medical University of Lodz, Łódź, Poland
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Ghafarimoghadam M, Mashayekh R, Gholami M, Fereydani P, Shelley-Tremblay J, Kandezi N, Sabouri E, Motaghinejad M. A review of behavioral methods for the evaluation of cognitive performance in animal models: Current techniques and links to human cognition. Physiol Behav 2022; 244:113652. [PMID: 34801559 DOI: 10.1016/j.physbeh.2021.113652] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/04/2021] [Revised: 10/26/2021] [Accepted: 11/15/2021] [Indexed: 12/21/2022]
Abstract
INTRODUCTION Memory is defined as the ability to store, maintain and retrieve information. Learning is the acquisition of information that changes behavior and memory. Stress, dementia, head trauma, amnesia, Alzheimer's, Huntington, Parkinson's, Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome (WKS) may be mentioned among the diseases in which memory and learning are affected. The task of understanding deficits in memory and learning in humans is daunting due to the complexity of neural and cognitive mechanisms in the nervous system. This job is made more difficult for clinicians and researchers by the fact that many techniques used to research memory are not ethically acceptable or technically feasible for use in humans. Thus, animal models have been necessary alternative for studying normal and disordered learning and memory. This review attempts to bridge these domains to allow biomedical researchers to have a firm grasp of "memory" and "learning" as constructs in humans whereby they may then select the proper animal cognitive test. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION Various tests (open field habituation test, Y-maze test, passive avoidance test, step-down inhibitory avoidance test, active avoidance test, 8-arms radial maze test, Morris water maze test, radial arm water maze, novel object recognition test and gait function test) have been designed to evaluate different kinds of memory. Each of these tests has their strengths and limits. Abnormal results obtained using these tasks in non-human animals indicate malfunctions in memory which may be due to several physiological and psychological diseases of nervous system. Further studies by using the discussed tests can be very beneficial for achieving a therapeutic answer to these diseases.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maryam Ghafarimoghadam
- Department of pharmaceutical chemistry, faculty of pharmaceutical chemistry, pharmaceutical sciences branch, Islamic Azad University (IUAPS), Tehran, Iran
| | - Roya Mashayekh
- Department of pharmaceutical chemistry, faculty of pharmaceutical chemistry, pharmaceutical sciences branch, Islamic Azad University (IUAPS), Tehran, Iran
| | - Mina Gholami
- School of medicine, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
| | - Pardis Fereydani
- Department of pharmaceutical chemistry, faculty of pharmaceutical chemistry, pharmaceutical sciences branch, Islamic Azad University (IUAPS), Tehran, Iran
| | | | - Niyoosha Kandezi
- Department of Psychology, University of South Alabama, Alabama, USA
| | - Erfan Sabouri
- Clinical Research Development Center, Najafabad Branch, Islamic Azad University, Najafabad, Iran
| | - Majid Motaghinejad
- Chronic Respiratory Disease Research Center (CRDRC), National Research Institute of Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases (NRITLD), Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
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Verspeek J, van Leeuwen EJC, Laméris DW, Staes N, Stevens JMG. Adult bonobos show no prosociality in both prosocial choice task and group service paradigm. PeerJ 2022; 10:e12849. [PMID: 35178297 PMCID: PMC8815371 DOI: 10.7717/peerj.12849] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/07/2021] [Accepted: 01/07/2022] [Indexed: 01/10/2023] Open
Abstract
Previous studies reported contrasting conclusions concerning bonobo prosociality, which are likely due to differences in the experimental design, the social dynamics among subjects and characteristics of the subjects themselves. Two hypotheses have been proposed to explain the occurrence of prosociality in animals: the cooperative breeding hypothesis and the self-domestication hypothesis. While the former predicts low levels of prosociality in bonobos because they are non-cooperative breeders, the latter predicts high levels of prosociality because self-domestication has been proposed to select for high levels of tolerance in this species. Here, we presented a group of thirteen bonobos with two platform food-provisioning tasks: the prosocial choice task (PCT) and the group service paradigm (GSP). The latter has so far never been applied to bonobos. To allow for free choice of participation and partner, we implemented both tasks in a group setting. Like in previous PCT studies, bonobos did not choose the prosocial option more often when a group member could benefit vs not benefit. In the GSP, where food provisioning is costly, only subadult bonobos showed a limited amount of food provisioning, which was much lower than what was previously reported for chimpanzees. In both experiments, adult subjects were highly motivated to obtain rewards for themselves, suggesting that bonobos behaved indifferently to the gains of group members. We suggest that previous positive food-provisioning prosociality results in bonobos are mainly driven by the behaviour of subadult subjects. The lack of prosociality in this study corresponds to the hypothesis that proactive food provisioning co-occurs with cooperative breeding and suggests that proactive prosociality might not be part of the self-domestication syndrome in bonobos.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jonas Verspeek
- Centre for Research and Conservation, Royal Zoological Society of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium,Behavioural Ecology and Ecophysiology Group, Department of Biology, University of Antwerp, Wilrijk, Belgium
| | - Edwin J. C. van Leeuwen
- Centre for Research and Conservation, Royal Zoological Society of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium,Behavioural Ecology and Ecophysiology Group, Department of Biology, University of Antwerp, Wilrijk, Belgium
| | - Daan W. Laméris
- Centre for Research and Conservation, Royal Zoological Society of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium,Behavioural Ecology and Ecophysiology Group, Department of Biology, University of Antwerp, Wilrijk, Belgium
| | - Nicky Staes
- Centre for Research and Conservation, Royal Zoological Society of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium,Behavioural Ecology and Ecophysiology Group, Department of Biology, University of Antwerp, Wilrijk, Belgium
| | - Jeroen M. G. Stevens
- Centre for Research and Conservation, Royal Zoological Society of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium,Behavioural Ecology and Ecophysiology Group, Department of Biology, University of Antwerp, Wilrijk, Belgium,SALTO, Agro- and Biotechnology, Odisee University College, Brussels, Belgium
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20
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Laméris DW, Verspeek J, Eens M, Stevens JMG. Social and nonsocial stimuli alter the performance of bonobos during a pictorial emotional Stroop task. Am J Primatol 2022; 84:e23356. [DOI: 10.1002/ajp.23356] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/28/2021] [Revised: 12/13/2021] [Accepted: 12/18/2021] [Indexed: 12/20/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Daan W. Laméris
- Department of Biology Behavioural Ecology and Ecophysiology Group, University of Antwerp Antwerp Belgium
- Antwerp ZOO Centre for Research & Conservation (CRC), Royal Zoological Society of Antwerp (RZSA) Antwerp Belgium
| | - Jonas Verspeek
- Department of Biology Behavioural Ecology and Ecophysiology Group, University of Antwerp Antwerp Belgium
- Antwerp ZOO Centre for Research & Conservation (CRC), Royal Zoological Society of Antwerp (RZSA) Antwerp Belgium
| | - Marcel Eens
- Department of Biology Behavioural Ecology and Ecophysiology Group, University of Antwerp Antwerp Belgium
| | - Jeroen M. G. Stevens
- Department of Biology Behavioural Ecology and Ecophysiology Group, University of Antwerp Antwerp Belgium
- Antwerp ZOO Centre for Research & Conservation (CRC), Royal Zoological Society of Antwerp (RZSA) Antwerp Belgium
- SALTO, Agro‐ and Biotechnology, Odisee University College Brussels Belgium
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Garfield ZH, Schacht R, Post ER, Ingram D, Uehling A, Macfarlan SJ. The content and structure of reputation domains across human societies: a view from the evolutionary social sciences. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2021; 376:20200296. [PMID: 34601916 PMCID: PMC8487742 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2020.0296] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 07/26/2021] [Indexed: 01/05/2023] Open
Abstract
Reputations are an essential feature of human sociality and the evolution of cooperation and group living. Much scholarship has focused on reputations, yet typically on a narrow range of domains (e.g. prosociality and aggressiveness), usually in isolation. Humans can develop reputations, however, from any collective information. We conducted exploratory analyses on the content, distribution and structure of reputation domain diversity across cultures, using the Human Relations Area Files ethnographic database. After coding ethnographic texts on reputations from 153 cultures, we used hierarchical modelling, cluster analysis and text analysis to provide an empirical view of reputation domains across societies. Findings suggest: (i) reputational domains vary cross-culturally, yet reputations for cultural conformity, prosociality, social status and neural capital are widespread; (ii) reputation domains are more variable for males than females; and (iii) particular reputation domains are interrelated, demonstrating a structure consistent with dimensions of human uniqueness. We label these features: cultural group unity, dominance, neural capital, sexuality, social and material success and supernatural healing. We highlight the need for future research on the evolution of cooperation and human sociality to consider a wider range of reputation domains, as well as their social, ecological and gender-specific variability. This article is part of the theme issue 'The language of cooperation: reputation and honest signalling'.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zachary H. Garfield
- Institute for Advanced Study in Toulouse, Université de Toulouse 1 Capitole, Toulouse, France
| | - Ryan Schacht
- Department of Anthropology, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC, USA
| | - Emily R. Post
- Department of Anthropology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA
| | - Dominique Ingram
- Department of Anthropology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA
| | - Andrea Uehling
- Department of Anthropology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA
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Richters JE. Incredible Utility: The Lost Causes and Causal Debris of Psychological Science. Basic and Applied Social Psychology 2021. [DOI: 10.1080/01973533.2021.1979003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/20/2022]
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Nguyen TN, Gonzalez C. Theory of Mind From Observation in Cognitive Models and Humans. Top Cogn Sci 2021; 14:665-686. [PMID: 34165919 DOI: 10.1111/tops.12553] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/26/2020] [Revised: 05/31/2021] [Accepted: 06/01/2021] [Indexed: 12/01/2022]
Abstract
A major challenge for research in artificial intelligence is to develop systems that can infer the goals, beliefs, and intentions of others (i.e., systems that have theory of mind, ToM). In this research, we propose a cognitive ToM framework that uses a well-known theory of decisions from experience to construct a computational representation of ToM. Instance-based learning theory (IBLT) is used to construct a cognitive model that generates ToM from the observation of other agents' behavior. The IBL model of the observer distinguishes itself from previous models of ToM that make unreasonable assumptions about human cognition, are hand-crafted for particular settings, complex, or unable to explain a cognitive development of ToM compared to human's ToM. The IBL model learns from the observation of goal-directed agents' behavior in a gridworld navigation task, and it infers and predicts the behaviors of the agents in new gridworlds across different degrees of decision complexity in similar ways to the way human observers do. We provide evidence for the alignment of the IBL observer's predictions under various levels of decision complexity. We also advance the demonstration of the IBL predictions using a classic test of false beliefs (the Sally-Anne test), which is commonly used to test ToM in humans. We discuss our results and the potential of the IBL observer model to improve human-machine interactions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Thuy Ngoc Nguyen
- Dynamic Decision Making Laboratory, Social and Decision Sciences Department, Carnegie Mellon University
| | - Cleotilde Gonzalez
- Dynamic Decision Making Laboratory, Social and Decision Sciences Department, Carnegie Mellon University
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Abstract
This research studied the strategies that players use in sequential adversarial games. We took the Rock-Paper-Scissors (RPS) game as an example and ran players in two experiments. The first experiment involved two humans, who played the RPS together for 100 times. Importantly, our payoff design in the RPS allowed us to differentiate between participants who used a random strategy from those who used a Nash strategy. We found that participants did not play in agreement with the Nash strategy, but rather, their behavior was closer to random. Moreover, the analyses of the participants’ sequential actions indicated heterogeneous cycle-based behaviors: some participants’ actions were independent of their past outcomes, some followed a well-known win-stay/lose-change strategy, and others exhibited the win-change/lose-stay behavior. To understand the sequential patterns of outcome-dependent actions, we designed probabilistic computer algorithms involving specific change actions (i.e., to downgrade or upgrade according to the immediate past outcome): the Win-Downgrade/Lose-Stay (WDLS) or Win-Stay/Lose-Upgrade (WSLU) strategies. Experiment 2 used these strategies against a human player. Our findings show that participants followed a win-stay strategy against the WDLS algorithm and a lose-change strategy against the WSLU algorithm, while they had difficulty in using an upgrade/downgrade direction, suggesting humans’ limited ability to detect and counter the actions of the algorithm. Taken together, our two experiments showed a large diversity of sequential strategies, where the win-stay/lose-change strategy did not describe the majority of human players’ dynamic behaviors in this adversarial situation.
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Abstract
Van Leeuwen et al. found that two peculiar interactive behaviors (social scratching and groom slapping) transmitted socially through bonobo networks across six European zoos.
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Affiliation(s)
- Edwin J C van Leeuwen
- Behavioral Ecology and Ecophysiology Group, Department of Biology, University of Antwerp, Universiteitsplein 1, 2610 Wilrijk, Belgium; Centre for Research and Conservation, Royal Zoological Society of Antwerp, K. Astridplein 26, B 2018 Antwerp, Belgium.
| | - Nicky Staes
- Behavioral Ecology and Ecophysiology Group, Department of Biology, University of Antwerp, Universiteitsplein 1, 2610 Wilrijk, Belgium; Centre for Research and Conservation, Royal Zoological Society of Antwerp, K. Astridplein 26, B 2018 Antwerp, Belgium
| | - Jonas Verspeek
- Behavioral Ecology and Ecophysiology Group, Department of Biology, University of Antwerp, Universiteitsplein 1, 2610 Wilrijk, Belgium; Centre for Research and Conservation, Royal Zoological Society of Antwerp, K. Astridplein 26, B 2018 Antwerp, Belgium
| | - William J E Hoppitt
- School of Biology, University of Leeds, LS2 9JT Leeds, UK; School of Biological Sciences, Royal Holloway, University of London, TW20 0EY Egham, UK
| | - Jeroen M G Stevens
- Behavioral Ecology and Ecophysiology Group, Department of Biology, University of Antwerp, Universiteitsplein 1, 2610 Wilrijk, Belgium; Centre for Research and Conservation, Royal Zoological Society of Antwerp, K. Astridplein 26, B 2018 Antwerp, Belgium.
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Abstract
Abstract
Discussions of microbiome research increasingly refer to the microbiome's impact on what it means to be human. These claims are rarely carefully explained or justified. Given the increasing importance of microbiome research across the life sciences, philosophy, and the public sphere, it is worth exercising more care in these discussions. This article offers a guide for doing so. There are many different ways to interpret the details of ambiguous claims about the microbiome and what it means to be human. I discuss some possible interpretations and show how the resulting claims can range from trivial to suggestive of interesting research to controversial and overhyped. I recommend greater caution and clarity in ongoing discussions of microbiome research and its implications.
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Affiliation(s)
- Emily C Parke
- Department of Philosophy, School of Humanities, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand
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Staes N, Guevara EE, Helsen P, Eens M, Stevens JMG. The Pan social brain: An evolutionary history of neurochemical receptor genes and their potential impact on sociocognitive differences. J Hum Evol 2021; 152:102949. [PMID: 33578304 DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2021.102949] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/03/2020] [Revised: 01/07/2021] [Accepted: 01/07/2021] [Indexed: 12/21/2022]
Abstract
Humans have unique cognitive capacities that, compared with apes, are not only simply expressed as a higher level of general intelligence, but also as a quantitative difference in sociocognitive skills. Humans' closest living relatives, bonobos (Pan paniscus), and chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes), show key between-species differences in social cognition despite their close phylogenetic relatedness, with bonobos arguably showing greater similarities to humans. To better understand the evolution of these traits, we investigate the neurochemical mechanisms underlying sociocognitive skills by focusing on variation in genes encoding proteins with well-documented roles in mammalian social cognition: the receptors for vasopressin (AVPR1A), oxytocin (OXTR), serotonin (HTR1A), and dopamine (DRD2). Although these genes have been well studied in humans, little is known about variation in these genes that may underlie differences in social behavior and cognition in apes. We comparatively analyzed sequence data for 33 bonobos and 57 chimpanzees, together with orthologous sequence data for other apes. In all four genes, we describe genetic variants that alter the amino acid sequence of the respective receptors, raising the possibility that ligand binding or signal transduction may be impacted. Overall, bonobos show 57% more fixed substitutions than chimpanzees compared with the ancestral Pan lineage. Chimpanzees, show 31% more polymorphic coding variation, in line with their larger historical effective population size estimates and current wider distribution. An extensive literature review comparing allelic changes in Pan with known human behavioral variants revealed evidence of homologous evolution in bonobos and humans (OXTR rs4686301(T) and rs237897(A)), while humans and chimpanzees shared OXTR rs2228485(A), DRD2 rs6277(A), and DRD2 rs11214613(A) to the exclusion of bonobos. Our results offer the first in-depth comparison of neurochemical receptor gene variation in Pan and put forward new variants for future behavior-genotype association studies in apes, which can increase our understanding of the evolution of social cognition in modern humans.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nicky Staes
- Behavioral Ecology and Ecophysiology Group, Department of Biology, University of Antwerp, Universiteitsplein 1, 2610, Wilrijk, Belgium; Centre for Research and Conservation, Royal Zoological Society of Antwerp, Koningin Astridplein 26, 2018, Antwerp, Belgium.
| | - Elaine E Guevara
- Evolutionary Anthropology, Duke University, 130 Science Dr, Durham, NC, 27708, USA
| | - Philippe Helsen
- Centre for Research and Conservation, Royal Zoological Society of Antwerp, Koningin Astridplein 26, 2018, Antwerp, Belgium
| | - Marcel Eens
- Behavioral Ecology and Ecophysiology Group, Department of Biology, University of Antwerp, Universiteitsplein 1, 2610, Wilrijk, Belgium
| | - Jeroen M G Stevens
- Behavioral Ecology and Ecophysiology Group, Department of Biology, University of Antwerp, Universiteitsplein 1, 2610, Wilrijk, Belgium
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Miletto Petrazzini ME, Brennan CH. Application of an abstract concept across magnitude dimensions by fish. Sci Rep 2020; 10:16935. [PMID: 33037309 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-74037-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/13/2020] [Accepted: 09/22/2020] [Indexed: 11/26/2022] Open
Abstract
Mastering relational concepts and applying them to different contexts presupposes abstraction capacities and implies a high level of cognitive sophistication. One way to investigate extrapolative abilities is to assess cross-dimensional application of an abstract relational magnitude rule to new domains. Here we show that angelfish initially trained to choose either the shorter of two lines in a spatial task (line-length discrimination task) or the array with “fewer” items (numerical discrimination task) spontaneously transferred the learnt rule to novel stimuli belonging to the previously unseen dimension demonstrating knowledge of the abstract concept of “smaller”. Our finding challenges the idea that the ability to master abstract magnitude concepts across domains is unique to humans and suggests that the circuits involved in rule learning and magnitude processing might be evolutionary conserved.
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Farajollahi Z, Razmara E, Heidari E, Jafarinia E, Garshasbi M. A novel variant of ST3GAL3 causes non-syndromic autosomal recessive intellectual disability in Iranian patients. J Gene Med 2020; 22:e3253. [PMID: 32666583 DOI: 10.1002/jgm.3253] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/10/2020] [Revised: 05/01/2020] [Accepted: 07/09/2020] [Indexed: 01/16/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND The number of reported genes causing non-syndromic autosomal recessive intellectual disability (NS-ARID) is increasing. For example, mutations in the ST3GAL3 gene have been reported to be associated with NS-ARID. In the present study, we aimed to determine the genetic cause of the NS-ARID in a five-generation consanguineous Iranian family. METHODS We subjected four patients with an initial diagnosis of NS-ID in an Iranian family. To identify the possible genetic cause(s), whole-exome sequencing was performed on the proband and Sanger sequencing was applied to investigate co-segregation analysis. Using in silico predictive tools, the possible impacts of the variant on the structure and function of ST3Gal-III were predicted. RESULTS The common clinical features were detected in all affected members who were suffering from a severe ID. Using whole-exome sequencing, a novel variant, c.704C>T or p.(Thr235Met), in exon 9 of the ST3GAL3 gene (NM_001270461.2, OMIM# 606494) was identified and verified by Sanger sequencing. This variant is located next to the VS motif of ST3Gal-III, which is a vital part of the catalytical domains. CONCLUSIONS In the present study, we identified a novel missense variant, c.704C>T or p.(Thr235Met), in the ST3GAL3. To our knowledge, is the third variant in this gene to be associated with NS-ARID. Our findings highlight the need for further investigations into the mechanisms by which variants in ST3GAL3 contribute to neurological dysfunction.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zahra Farajollahi
- Department of Medical Genetics, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran
| | - Ehsan Razmara
- Department of Medical Genetics, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran
| | - Erfan Heidari
- Department of Medical Genetics, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran
| | - Ehsan Jafarinia
- Department of Medical Genetics, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran
| | - Masoud Garshasbi
- Department of Medical Genetics, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran
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Bräuer J, Hanus D, Pika S, Gray R, Uomini N. Old and New Approaches to Animal Cognition: There Is Not "One Cognition". J Intell 2020; 8:E28. [PMID: 32630788 PMCID: PMC7555673 DOI: 10.3390/jintelligence8030028] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/26/2020] [Revised: 05/29/2020] [Accepted: 06/22/2020] [Indexed: 12/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Using the comparative approach, researchers draw inferences about the evolution of cognition. Psychologists have postulated several hypotheses to explain why certain species are cognitively more flexible than others, and these hypotheses assume that certain cognitive skills are linked together to create a generally "smart" species. However, empirical findings suggest that several animal species are highly specialized, showing exceptional skills in single cognitive domains while performing poorly in others. Although some cognitive skills may indeed overlap, we cannot a priori assume that they do across species. We argue that the term "cognition" has often been used by applying an anthropocentric viewpoint rather than a biocentric one. As a result, researchers tend to overrate cognitive skills that are human-like and assume that certain skills cluster together in other animals as they do in our own species. In this paper, we emphasize that specific physical and social environments create selection pressures that lead to the evolution of certain cognitive adaptations. Skills such as following the pointing gesture, tool-use, perspective-taking, or the ability to cooperate evolve independently from each other as a concrete result of specific selection pressures, and thus have appeared in distantly related species. Thus, there is not "one cognition". Our argument is founded upon traditional Darwinian thinking, which-although always at the forefront of biology-has sometimes been neglected in animal cognition research. In accordance with the biocentric approach, we advocate a broader empirical perspective as we are convinced that to better understand animal minds, comparative researchers should focus much more on questions and experiments that are ecologically valid. We should investigate nonhuman cognition for its own sake, not only in comparison to the human model.
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Affiliation(s)
- Juliane Bräuer
- Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution, Kahlaische Strasse 10, 07745 Jena, Germany
- Department of General Psychology, Friedrich-Schiller-University, Am Steiger 3, 07743 Jena, Germany
| | - Daniel Hanus
- Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Department of Developmental and Comparative Psychology, Deutscher Platz 6, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
| | - Simone Pika
- Institute of Cognitive Science, Comparative BioCognition, University of Osnabrück, Artilleriestrasse 34, 49076 Osnabrück, Germany
| | - Russell Gray
- Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution, Kahlaische Strasse 10, 07745 Jena, Germany
| | - Natalie Uomini
- Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution, Kahlaische Strasse 10, 07745 Jena, Germany
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32
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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. Anim Cogn 2020; 23:953-64. [PMID: 32524290 DOI: 10.1007/s10071-020-01400-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/03/2020] [Revised: 05/14/2020] [Accepted: 05/26/2020] [Indexed: 12/17/2022]
Abstract
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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33
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Laméris DW, van Berlo E, Sterck EHM, Bionda T, Kret ME. Low relationship quality predicts scratch contagion during tense situations in orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus). Am J Primatol 2020; 82:e23138. [PMID: 32333423 PMCID: PMC7379188 DOI: 10.1002/ajp.23138] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/03/2019] [Revised: 04/06/2020] [Accepted: 04/08/2020] [Indexed: 01/27/2023]
Abstract
Primates show various forms of behavioral contagion that are stronger between kin and friends. As a result, behavioral contagion is thought to promote group coordination, social cohesion, and possibly state matching. Aside from contagious yawning, little is known about the contagious effect of other behaviors. Scratching is commonly observed during arousal and as such may play a role within group dynamics. While the Bornean orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus) is commonly considered the least social great ape, orangutans do engage in social interactions. Therefore, their social organization makes them a suitable case for studying the social function of behavioral contagion. Through behavioral observations of captive orangutans, we recorded all yawn and scratch events together with the corresponding behavior of all bystander group-members. As yawning was rarely observed, no conclusions could be drawn regarding this behavior. Scratching was contagious and occurred within 90 s after the triggering scratch. Specifically, orangutans showed increased scratch contagion when they had seen a weakly bonded individual scratch during tense contexts. When the orangutan had not seen the triggering scratch, the contagiousness of scratching was not affected by context or relationship quality. Our results indicate that behavioral contagion is not simply higher between individuals with stronger social relationships, but that the contagiousness of behaviors may vary based on the context and on social factors. We discuss these findings in light of an adaptive function that may reduce aggression.
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Affiliation(s)
- Daan W Laméris
- Institute of Psychology, Faculty of Social Sciences, Cognitive Psychology Unit, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands.,Department of Biology, Animal Ecology Research Group, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands
| | - Evy van Berlo
- Institute of Psychology, Faculty of Social Sciences, Cognitive Psychology Unit, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands.,Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden, The Netherlands
| | - Elisabeth H M Sterck
- Department of Biology, Animal Ecology Research Group, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands.,Department of Animal Science, Biomedical Primate Research Centre, Rijswijk, The Netherlands
| | | | - Mariska E Kret
- Institute of Psychology, Faculty of Social Sciences, Cognitive Psychology Unit, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands.,Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden, The Netherlands
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34
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Palagi E, Celeghin A, Tamietto M, Winkielman P, Norscia I. The neuroethology of spontaneous mimicry and emotional contagion in human and non-human animals. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2020; 111:149-165. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2020.01.020] [Citation(s) in RCA: 65] [Impact Index Per Article: 16.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/04/2019] [Revised: 11/27/2019] [Accepted: 01/18/2020] [Indexed: 01/30/2023]
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Abstract
The theory of "disinhibition" has been very influential in psychiatry and neurology for over a century. Disinhibition has been used to explain clinical findings in many neurological and psychiatric disorders including dementia, traumatic brain injury, attention deficit hyperactive disorder, substance abuse, impulsivity in personality disorders, and neurodevelopmental disorders. In addition, disinhibition has been used as a unifying theory to link clinical observations with cognitive findings, and even cellular findings. This review discusses the origins and history of the theory of disinhibition and its strengths and weaknesses in four domains: face validity, consistency with other brain mechanisms, consistency with evolutionary mechanisms, and empiric support. I assert that the vagueness of the theory, inconsistency with other brain mechanisms, and lack of empiric support limit the usefulness of this theory. Alternative approaches, based on findings in other motor, language, and cognitive functions, are discussed.
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36
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Vasil J, Badcock PB, Constant A, Friston K, Ramstead MJD. A World Unto Itself: Human Communication as Active Inference. Front Psychol 2020; 11:417. [PMID: 32269536 PMCID: PMC7109408 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00417] [Citation(s) in RCA: 38] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/24/2019] [Accepted: 02/24/2020] [Indexed: 01/12/2023] Open
Abstract
Recent theoretical work in developmental psychology suggests that humans are predisposed to align their mental states with those of other individuals. One way this manifests is in cooperative communication; that is, intentional communication aimed at aligning individuals' mental states with respect to events in their shared environment. This idea has received strong empirical support. The purpose of this paper is to extend this account by proposing an integrative model of the biobehavioral dynamics of cooperative communication. Our formulation is based on active inference. Active inference suggests that action-perception cycles operate to minimize uncertainty and optimize an individual's internal model of the world. We propose that humans are characterized by an evolved adaptive prior belief that their mental states are aligned with, or similar to, those of conspecifics (i.e., that 'we are the same sort of creature, inhabiting the same sort of niche'). The use of cooperative communication emerges as the principal means to gather evidence for this belief, allowing for the development of a shared narrative that is used to disambiguate interactants' (hidden and inferred) mental states. Thus, by using cooperative communication, individuals effectively attune to a hermeneutic niche composed, in part, of others' mental states; and, reciprocally, attune the niche to their own ends via epistemic niche construction. This means that niche construction enables features of the niche to encode precise, reliable cues about the deontic or shared value of certain action policies (e.g., the utility of using communicative constructions to disambiguate mental states, given expectations about shared prior beliefs). In turn, the alignment of mental states (prior beliefs) enables the emergence of a novel, contextualizing scale of cultural dynamics that encompasses the actions and mental states of the ensemble of interactants and their shared environment. The dynamics of this contextualizing layer of cultural organization feedback, across scales, to constrain the variability of the prior expectations of the individuals who constitute it. Our theory additionally builds upon the active inference literature by introducing a new set of neurobiologically plausible computational hypotheses for cooperative communication. We conclude with directions for future research.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jared Vasil
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC, United States
| | - Paul B. Badcock
- Centre for Youth Mental Health, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
- Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
- Orygen, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
| | - Axel Constant
- Charles Perkins Centre, The University of Sydney, Camperdown, NSW, Australia
- Culture, Mind, and Brain Program, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada
- Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging, University College London, London, United Kingdom
| | - Karl Friston
- Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging, University College London, London, United Kingdom
| | - Maxwell J. D. Ramstead
- Culture, Mind, and Brain Program, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada
- Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging, University College London, London, United Kingdom
- Division of Social and Transcultural Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada
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Upham NS, Esselstyn JA, Jetz W. Inferring the mammal tree: Species-level sets of phylogenies for questions in ecology, evolution, and conservation. PLoS Biol 2019; 17:e3000494. [PMID: 31800571 PMCID: PMC6892540 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3000494] [Citation(s) in RCA: 441] [Impact Index Per Article: 88.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/23/2019] [Accepted: 10/24/2019] [Indexed: 12/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Big, time-scaled phylogenies are fundamental to connecting evolutionary processes to modern biodiversity patterns. Yet inferring reliable phylogenetic trees for thousands of species involves numerous trade-offs that have limited their utility to comparative biologists. To establish a robust evolutionary timescale for all approximately 6,000 living species of mammals, we developed credible sets of trees that capture root-to-tip uncertainty in topology and divergence times. Our "backbone-and-patch" approach to tree building applies a newly assembled 31-gene supermatrix to two levels of Bayesian inference: (1) backbone relationships and ages among major lineages, using fossil node or tip dating, and (2) species-level "patch" phylogenies with nonoverlapping in-groups that each correspond to one representative lineage in the backbone. Species unsampled for DNA are either excluded ("DNA-only" trees) or imputed within taxonomic constraints using branch lengths drawn from local birth-death models ("completed" trees). Joining time-scaled patches to backbones results in species-level trees of extant Mammalia with all branches estimated under the same modeling framework, thereby facilitating rate comparisons among lineages as disparate as marsupials and placentals. We compare our phylogenetic trees to previous estimates of mammal-wide phylogeny and divergence times, finding that (1) node ages are broadly concordant among studies, and (2) recent (tip-level) rates of speciation are estimated more accurately in our study than in previous "supertree" approaches, in which unresolved nodes led to branch-length artifacts. Credible sets of mammalian phylogenetic history are now available for download at http://vertlife.org/phylosubsets, enabling investigations of long-standing questions in comparative biology.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nathan S. Upham
- Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, United States of America
- Center for Biodiversity & Global Change, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, United States of America
| | - Jacob A. Esselstyn
- Department of Biological Sciences and Museum of Natural Science, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, United States of America
| | - Walter Jetz
- Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, United States of America
- Center for Biodiversity & Global Change, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, United States of America
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Grillon C, Robinson OJ, Cornwell B, Ernst M. Modeling anxiety in healthy humans: a key intermediate bridge between basic and clinical sciences. Neuropsychopharmacology 2019; 44:1999-2010. [PMID: 31226707 PMCID: PMC6897969 DOI: 10.1038/s41386-019-0445-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 38] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/13/2019] [Revised: 06/06/2019] [Accepted: 06/11/2019] [Indexed: 12/11/2022]
Abstract
Animal models of anxiety disorders are important for elucidating neurobiological defense mechanisms. However, animal models are limited when it comes to understanding the more complex processes of anxiety that are unique to humans (e.g., worry) and to screen new treatments. In this review, we outline how the Experimental Psychopathology approach, based on experimental models of anxiety in healthy subjects, can mitigate these limitations and complement research in animals. Experimental psychopathology can bridge basic research in animals and clinical studies, as well as guide and constrain hypotheses about the nature of psychopathology, treatment mechanisms, and treatment targets. This review begins with a brief review of the strengths and limitations of animal models before discussing the need for human models of anxiety, which are especially necessary to probe higher-order cognitive processes. This can be accomplished by combining anxiety-induction procedures with tasks that probe clinically relevant processes to identify neurocircuits that are potentially altered by anxiety. The review then discusses the validity of experimental psychopathology and introduces a methodological approach consisting of five steps: (1) select anxiety-relevant cognitive or behavioral operations and associated tasks, (2) identify the underlying neurocircuits supporting these operations in healthy controls, 3) examine the impact of experimental anxiety on the targeted operations in healthy controls, (4) utilize findings from step 3 to generate hypotheses about neurocircuit dysfunction in anxious patients, and 5) evaluate treatment mechanisms and screen novel treatments. This is followed by two concrete illustrations of this approach and suggestions for future studies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Christian Grillon
- Section on the Neurobiology of Fear and Anxiety, National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, MD, USA.
| | - Oliver J Robinson
- University College London, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, London, UK
| | - Brian Cornwell
- Centre for Mental Health, Faculty of Health, Arts and Design, Swinburne University of Technology, Hawthorn, VIC, Australia
| | - Monique Ernst
- Section on the Neurobiology of Fear and Anxiety, National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, MD, USA
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Abstract
Variation across dog breeds presents a unique opportunity to investigate the evolution and biological basis of complex behavioural traits. We integrated behavioural data from more than 14 000 dogs from 101 breeds with breed-averaged genotypic data (n = 5697 dogs) from over 100 000 loci in the dog genome. We found high levels of among-breed heritability for 14 behavioural traits (the proportion of trait variance attributable to genetic similarity among breeds). We next identified 131 single nucleotide polymorphisms associated with breed differences in behaviour, which were found in genes that are highly expressed in the brain and enriched for neurobiological functions and developmental processes, suggesting that they may be functionally associated with behavioural differences. Our results shed light on the heritability and genetic architecture of complex behavioural traits and identify dogs as a powerful model in which to address these questions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Evan L MacLean
- School of Anthropology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA.,Department of Psychology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA
| | - Noah Snyder-Mackler
- Department of Psychology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA.,Center for Studies in Demography and Ecology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA.,Washington National Primate Research Center, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
| | - Bridgett M vonHoldt
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA
| | - James A Serpell
- School of Veterinary Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
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40
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Brown R, Lau H, LeDoux JE. Understanding the Higher-Order Approach to Consciousness. Trends Cogn Sci 2019; 23:754-768. [PMID: 31375408 DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2019.06.009] [Citation(s) in RCA: 138] [Impact Index Per Article: 27.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/08/2019] [Revised: 05/15/2019] [Accepted: 06/26/2019] [Indexed: 01/28/2023]
Abstract
The higher-order theory (HOT) of consciousness has often been misunderstood by critics. Here, we clarify its position on several issues, and distinguish it from other views, such as the global workspace theory (GWT) and early sensory models (e.g., first-order local recurrency theories). For example, HOT has been criticized for overintellectualizing consciousness. We show that, while higher-order states are cognitively assembled, the requirements are in fact considerably less than often presumed. In this sense, HOT may be viewed as an intermediate position between GWT and early sensory views. We also clarify that most proponents of HOT do not stipulate consciousness as equivalent to metacognition or confidence. Furthermore, compared with other existing theories, HOT can arguably account better for complex everyday experiences, such as emotions and episodic memories. This makes HOT particularly useful as a framework for conceptualizing pathological mental states.
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Affiliation(s)
- Richard Brown
- Philosophy Program LaGuardia Community College, City University of New York, Long Island City, NY, USA
| | - Hakwan Lau
- Department of Psychology and Brain Research Institute, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA; Department of Psychology, and State Key Laboratory for Brain and Cognitive Sciences, the University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
| | - Joseph E LeDoux
- Center for Neural Science and Department of Psychology, New York University, New York, NY, USA; Departments of Psychiatry and Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, New York University Langone Medical School, New York, NY, USA; Nathan Kline Institute, Orangeburg, NY, USA.
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41
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Medina L, Abellán A, Desfilis E. Evolution of Pallial Areas and Networks Involved in Sociality: Comparison Between Mammals and Sauropsids. Front Physiol 2019; 10:894. [PMID: 31354528 PMCID: PMC6640085 DOI: 10.3389/fphys.2019.00894] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/07/2019] [Accepted: 06/27/2019] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Birds are extremely interesting animals for studying the neurobiological basis of cognition and its evolution. They include species that are highly social and show high cognitive capabilities. Moreover, birds rely more on visual and auditory cues than on olfaction for social behavior and cognition, just like primates. In primates, there are two major brain networks associated to sociality: (1) one related to perception and decision-making, involving the pallial amygdala (with the basolateral complex as a major component), the temporal and temporoparietal neocortex, and the orbitofrontal cortex; (2) another one related to affiliation, including the medial extended amygdala, the ventromedial prefrontal and anterior cingulate cortices, the ventromedial striatum (largely nucleus accumbens), and the ventromedial hypothalamus. In this account, we used an evolutionary developmental neurobiology approach, in combination with published comparative connectivity and functional data, to identify areas and functional networks in the sauropsidian brain comparable to those of mammals that are related to decision-making and affiliation. Both in mammals and sauropsids, there is an important interaction between these networks by way of cross projections between areas of both systems.
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Affiliation(s)
- Loreta Medina
- Department of Experimental Medicine, Institut de Recerca Biomèdica de Lleida - Fundació Dr. Pifarré (IRBLleida), University of Lleida, Lleida, Spain
| | - Antonio Abellán
- Department of Experimental Medicine, Institut de Recerca Biomèdica de Lleida - Fundació Dr. Pifarré (IRBLleida), University of Lleida, Lleida, Spain
| | - Ester Desfilis
- Department of Experimental Medicine, Institut de Recerca Biomèdica de Lleida - Fundació Dr. Pifarré (IRBLleida), University of Lleida, Lleida, Spain
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Clark H, Elsherif MM, Leavens DA. Ontogeny vs. phylogeny in primate/canid comparisons: A meta-analysis of the object choice task. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2019; 105:178-189. [PMID: 31170434 DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2019.06.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/27/2019] [Revised: 05/25/2019] [Accepted: 06/02/2019] [Indexed: 10/26/2022]
Abstract
The Object Choice Task (OCT) is a widely used paradigm with which researchers measure the ability of a subject to comprehend deictic (directional) cues, such as pointing gestures and eye gaze. There is a widespread belief that nonhuman primates evince only a weak capacity to use deictic cues; in contrast, domestic dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) tend to demonstrate high success rates. This pattern of canid superiority has been taken to support the Domestication Hypothesis, which posits enhancing effects of artificial selection on the sociocognitive abilities of dogs and humans. Here we review nearly two decades of published findings, using variants of the OCT. We find systematic confounds with species classification in task-relevant preparation of the subjects, in the imposition of a barrier between reward and subject, and in the specific deictic cues used to indicate the location of hidden objects. Thus, the widespread belief that dogs outperform primates on OCTs is undermined by the systematic procedural differences in the assessments of these skills, differences that are confounded with taxonomic classification.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hannah Clark
- School of Psychology, University of Sussex, Falmer, East Sussex, BN1 9QH, United Kingdom
| | - Mahmoud M Elsherif
- School of Psychology, University of Sussex, Falmer, East Sussex, BN1 9QH, United Kingdom; School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham, B15 2TT, United Kingdom
| | - David A Leavens
- School of Psychology, University of Sussex, Falmer, East Sussex, BN1 9QH, United Kingdom.
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Rosati AG. Heterochrony in chimpanzee and bonobo spatial memory development. Am J Phys Anthropol 2019; 169:302-321. [PMID: 30973969 PMCID: PMC6510607 DOI: 10.1002/ajpa.23833] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/05/2017] [Revised: 03/20/2019] [Accepted: 03/21/2019] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
OBJECTIVES The emergence of human-unique cognitive abilities has been linked to our species' extended juvenile period. Comparisons of cognitive development across species can provide new insights into the evolutionary mechanisms shaping cognition. This study examined the development of different components of spatial memory, cognitive mechanisms that support complex foraging, by comparing two species with similar life history that vary in wild ecology: bonobos (Pan paniscus) and chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes). MATERIALS AND METHODS Spatial memory development was assessed using a cross-sectional experimental design comparing apes ranging from infancy to adulthood. Study 1 tested 73 sanctuary-living apes on a task examining recall of a single location after a 1-week delay, compared to an earlier session. Study 2 tested their ability to recall multiple locations within a complex environment. Study 3 examined a subset of individuals from Study 2 on a motivational control task. RESULTS In Study 1, younger bonobos and chimpanzees of all ages exhibited improved performance in the test session compared to their initial learning experience. Older bonobos, in contrast, did not exhibit a memory boost in performance after the delay. In Study 2, older chimpanzees exhibited an improved ability to recall multiple locations, whereas bonobos did not exhibit any age-related differences. In Study 3, both species were similarly motivated to search for food in the absence of memory demands. DISCUSSION These results indicate that closely related species with similar life history characteristics can exhibit divergent patterns of cognitive development, and suggests a role of socioecological niche in shaping patterns of cognition in Pan.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alexandra G Rosati
- Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan
- Department of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan
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Sánchez‐Villagra MR, van Schaik CP. Evaluating the self‐domestication hypothesis of human evolution. Evol Anthropol 2019; 28:133-143. [DOI: 10.1002/evan.21777] [Citation(s) in RCA: 43] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/01/2018] [Revised: 12/12/2018] [Accepted: 03/03/2019] [Indexed: 12/17/2022]
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Bshary R, Raihani NJ. Helping in humans and other animals: a fruitful interdisciplinary dialogue. Proc Biol Sci 2018; 284:rspb.2017.0929. [PMID: 28954904 PMCID: PMC5627196 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2017.0929] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/29/2017] [Accepted: 08/29/2017] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Humans are arguably unique in the extent and scale of cooperation with unrelated individuals. While pairwise interactions among non-relatives occur in some non-human species, there is scant evidence of the large-scale, often unconditional prosociality that characterizes human social behaviour. Consequently, one may ask whether research on cooperation in humans can offer general insights to researchers working on similar questions in non-human species, and whether research on humans should be published in biology journals. We contend that the answer to both of these questions is yes. Most importantly, social behaviour in humans and other species operates under the same evolutionary framework. Moreover, we highlight how an open dialogue between different fields can inspire studies on humans and non-human species, leading to novel approaches and insights. Biology journals should encourage these discussions rather than drawing artificial boundaries between disciplines. Shared current and future challenges are to study helping in ecologically relevant contexts in order to correctly interpret how payoff matrices translate into inclusive fitness, and to integrate mechanisms into the hitherto largely functional theory. We can and should study human cooperation within a comparative framework in order to gain a full understanding of the evolution of helping.
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Affiliation(s)
- Redouan Bshary
- Institute of Biology, University of Neuchâtel, Emile-Argand 11, 2000 Neuchâtel, Switzerland
| | - Nichola J Raihani
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University College London, 26 Bedford Way, London WC1H 0AP, UK
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Araya-Salas M, Gonzalez-Gomez P, Wojczulanis-Jakubas K, López V, Wright TF. Spatial memory is as important as weapon and body size for territorial ownership in a lekking hummingbird. Sci Rep 2018; 8:2001. [PMID: 29386557 PMCID: PMC5792557 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-018-20441-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/27/2017] [Accepted: 01/17/2018] [Indexed: 12/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Advanced cognitive abilities have long been hypothesized to be important in mating. Yet, most work on sexual selection has focused on morphological traits and its relevance for cognitive evolution is poorly understood. We studied the spatial memory of lekking long-billed hermits (Phaethornis longirostris) and evaluated its role in lek territory ownership, the magnitude of its effect compared to phenotypic traits expected to influence sexual selection, and whether its variation is indicated in the structure of mating vocal signal. Spatial memory (the ability to recall the position of a rewarding feeder) was compared between “territorial” and “floater” males. Interestingly, although spatial memory and body size both positively affected the probability of lek territory ownership, our results suggest a stronger effect of spatial memory. Bill tip length (used as weapon in agonistic interactions) also showed a positive but smaller effect. Load lifting during vertical flight, a measure of physical performance relevant to agonistic interactions, had no effect on territory ownership. Finally, both body size and spatial memory were indicated in the structure of male song: body size negatively correlated with song lowest frequency, while spatial memory positively predicted song consistency. Together, our findings lend support for cognition as a sexual selection target.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marcelo Araya-Salas
- Laboratory of Ornithology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA. .,Escuela de Biología, Universidad de Costa Rica, San Pedro, San José, Costa Rica. .,Department of Biology, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM, USA.
| | - Paulina Gonzalez-Gomez
- Department of Neurobiology, Physiology and Behavior, University of California Davis, Davis, CA, USA.,Universidad Autonoma de Chile, Av. Pedro de Valdivia 425, Providencia, Santiago, Chile
| | | | - Virgilio López
- Department of Kinesiology, University of Connecticut, Connecticut, CT, USA
| | - Timothy F Wright
- Department of Biology, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM, USA
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LeDoux J, Brown R, Pine D, Hofmann S. Know Thyself: Well-Being and Subjective Experience. Cerebrum 2018; 2018. [PMID: 30746034 DOI: pmid/30746034] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Abstract] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/03/2022]
Abstract
The study of subjective experience represents a significant challenge to cognitive scientists, but one that is beginning to be increasingly addressed. Subjectivity renders experience less amenable to traditional objective scientific measurements than other subject matter. Our authors believe that when seeking to understand the mind, subjectivity must ultimately be investigated and understood.
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Abstract
Humans are a remarkable species, especially because of the remarkable properties of their brain. Since the split from the chimpanzee lineage, the human brain has increased three-fold in size and has acquired abilities for vocal learning, language and intense cooperation. To better understand the molecular basis of these changes is of great biological and biomedical interest. However, all the about 16 million fixed genetic changes that occurred during human evolution are fully correlated with all molecular, cellular, anatomical and behavioral changes that occurred during this time. Hence, as humans and chimpanzees cannot be crossed or genetically manipulated, no direct evidence for linking particular genetic and molecular changes to human brain evolution can be obtained. Here, I sketch a framework how indirect evidence can be obtained and review findings related to the molecular basis of human cognition, vocal learning and brain size. In particular, I discuss how a comprehensive comparative approach, leveraging cellular systems and genomic technologies, could inform the evolution of our brain in the future.
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Affiliation(s)
- Wolfgang Enard
- Department of Biology II, Ludwig Maximilian University Munich, Grosshaderner Str. 2, D-82152 Martinsried, Germany.
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Boyer DM, Harrington AR. Scaling of bony canals for encephalic vessels in euarchontans: Implications for the role of the vertebral artery and brain metabolism. J Hum Evol 2017; 114:85-101. [PMID: 29447763 DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2017.09.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/20/2016] [Revised: 09/01/2017] [Accepted: 09/02/2017] [Indexed: 01/07/2023]
Abstract
Supplying the central nervous system with oxygen and glucose for metabolic activities is a critical function for all animals at physiologic, anatomical, and behavioral levels. A relatively proximate challenge to nourishing the brain is maintaining adequate blood flow. Euarchontans (primates, dermopterans and treeshrews) display a diversity of solutions to this challenge. Although the vertebral artery is a major encephalic vessel, previous research has questioned its importance for irrigating the cerebrum. This presents a puzzling scenario for certain strepsirrhine primates (non-cheirogaleid lemuriforms) that have reduced promontorial branches of the internal carotid artery and no apparent alternative encephalic vascular route except for the vertebral artery. Here, we present results of phylogenetic comparative analyses of data on the cross-sectional area of bony canals that transmit the vertebral artery (transverse foramina). These results show that, across primates (and within major primate subgroups), variation in the transverse foramina helps significantly to explain variation in forebrain mass even when variation in promontorial canal cross-sectional areas are also considered. Furthermore, non-cheirogaleid lemuriforms have larger transverse foramina for their endocranial volume than other euarchontans, suggesting that the vertebral arteries compensate for reduced promontorial artery size. We also find that, among internal carotid-reliant euarchontans, species that are more encephalized tend to have a promontorial canal that is larger relative to the transverse foramina. Tentatively, we consider the correlation between arterial canal diameters (as a proxy for blood flow) and brain metabolic demands. The results of this analysis imply that human investment in brain metabolism (∼27% of basal metabolic rate) may not be exceptional among euarchontans.
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Affiliation(s)
- Doug M Boyer
- Department of Evolutionary Anthropology, Duke University, Durham, NC, 27708, USA.
| | - Arianna R Harrington
- Department of Evolutionary Anthropology, Duke University, Durham, NC, 27708, USA
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