Brains over brawn? Brown bears (Ursus arctos) demonstrate behavioral flexibility on a multi-access box and other tasks.

Game-theoretic modeling of vehicle unprotected left turns considering drivers' bounded rationality.

Head direction and the evolutionary origins of spatial representation.

As studies aimed at clarifying the evolution of cognition in animals accumulate, some non-human primates are widely considered to be the most cognitively advanced species after humans. Cognitive processes related to social interaction and emotional responsiveness may also play a role in primates' responses to death and dying; however, how social complexity might influence animals' understanding of death remains under-explored. Here, we connect evolutionary development and social systems to death cognition, and establish a five-dimensional framework for comparative purposes, based on existing thanatological studies. Of 135 species included in the analysis, dolphins, elephants and chimpanzees-species with highly complex societies-were shown to have a more advanced death understanding than other taxonomically close species. Focusing on a multilevel society primate, the golden snub-nosed monkey (Rhinopithecus roxellana), we present five death-related case studies involving behavioral, physiological, and social responses to dead conspecifics. Despite evolving on an older phylogenetic branch than that leading to modern hominids, these monkeys display prolonged dead-infant carrying, care/caretaking, silence and compassion, and revisitation of corpses at levels comparable to those seen in chimpanzees, more than other, non-multilevel society primates. In addition to introducing a novel approach to the comparative and evolutionary study of death-related behavior, we suggest that social complexity can exert a modulatory influence on phylogenetic factors that constrain the baseline cognitive architecture, allowing more nuanced expressions of death cognition.

Social living is widely considered a key driver of cognitive evolution, yet individuals within a species and even within the same group can differ substantially in their sociability (i.e., an individual’s propensity to form and maintain social bonds), which can ultimately shape the social environment they experience by influencing how they interact with, respond to, and engage in it. How such individual variation in this personality trait affects social cognition, however, remains poorly understood. To address this question, we used two selectively bred lines of Japanese quail (Coturnix japonica) that consistently differ in social motivation, a key component of sociability, which we used as a proxy for this broader trait. In these lines, S+ individuals show high social motivation, whereas S- individuals show low social motivation. We compared their sociocognitive performance across three complementary tasks: a gaze following task, a social buffering task, and a social discrimination learning task. Our findings revealed that Japanese quail reliably followed the gaze of conspecifics, providing the first evidence of this ability in this species. However, there was no difference between lines, suggesting that basic gaze following into the distance is independent of social motivation. In contrast, line differences emerged in the other tasks. S+ quail were more sensitive and less adaptable in response to environmental changes, particularly under social isolation, although the presence of a conspecific strongly buffered these effects. S- quail, on the other hand, outperformed S+ individuals in the social discrimination learning task, rapidly exploiting available social cues to guide foraging decisions. Overall, this study demonstrates that social motivation modulates sociocognitive performance in a context-dependent manner. Rather than conferring a general cognitive advantage, divergent selection on social motivation leads to different strategies of social information use across tasks and contexts, highlighting the complex interplay between personality, social environment, and cognition.

Fire, temperature control, and silcrete heat treatment at Diepkloof and Mertenhof Rock Shelters, West Coast, South Africa.

What impact do signs of change in international politics have on the images and learning of decision-makers? Is there a relational and cumulative dynamic between events, adaptation, learning, and change in foreign policy? Based on this problem, this article analyses Portuguese foreign policy in relation to the Timor-Leste issue at the start of its Europeanisation and identifies the main signs of change that influenced the Timor-Leste issue and the cognitive evolution of Portuguese elites. Through an analysis of ideas, contexts, and discourses, this article compares Portugal and Indonesia’s ideas and strategies and demonstrates the dynamics of adaptation to various movements of change and the consequent growing visibility of the Timor-Leste issue. This article argues that this growing importance resulted from the interaction between contextual and agential factors, with an emphasis on the perceptual learning process of the Portuguese elites.

Cognitive evolution in people with multiple sclerosis (pwMS) may follow different trajectories. This study investigated long-term cognitive evolution in pwMS while controlling for methodological factors and psychological variables, to refine neuropsychological monitoring. A cohort of pwMS (n = 148) underwent neuropsychological evaluations at three time points: baseline (BL), re-baseline (RBL; ~ 1year later), and long-term follow-up (LTFU; ~ 6years after BL). Annualized cognitive change scores were analyzed to compare changes during BL-RBL interval with those in RB-LTFU. Participants were classified over time as cognitively preserved (CP) or cognitively impaired (CI) and McNemar's test evaluated classification changes. Sensitivity analysis was conducted in a subgroup of recently diagnosed pwMS (n = 91). Reliable Change Indices (RCI) at the 95% confidence level were calculated for each neuropsychological test to identify significant improvements or declines between assessments, while accounting for practice effects. Exploratory analysis examined baseline demographic and clinical differences between pwMS who showed cognitive recovery and those with persistent CI. After controlling for test-retest effects, cognitive improvements occurred across several domains during BL-RB, while performance remained stable in RBL-LTFU. Shifts between CP and CI were more frequent in BL-RBL. Nearly 40% of pwMS classified as CI at BL reverted to CP at RBL, and approximately 50% reverted at LTFU. CP participants remained stable, with conversion rates to CI below 1%. RCI confirmed a higher number of reliable improvements than declines in the BL-RBL interval. Cognitive status at RBL and female sex were associated with cognitive recovery at LTFU. Cognitive trajectories in pwMS are dynamic with early improvements partly reflecting baseline measurement bias. Clinically, CI individuals at BL should undergo RBL assessment to improve long-term prognostic accuracy, whereas CP participants can be monitored avoiding unnecessary evaluations, optimizing resource allocations.

While diagnosis and treatment consensus has been established for vestibular migraine, migraine-related cochlear manifestations (such as sudden/progressive sensorineural hearing loss, tinnitus, and aural fullness, otalgia) still face high rates of misdiagnosis and missed diagnosis. With the proposal of the "cochlear migraine" concept, the establishment of interdisciplinary precise classification is urgently needed. To this end, multidisciplinary experts held a discussion on the hotspots in this field. This article systematically reviews the cognitive evolution of migraine in neuro-otology, comments on the phenotypes and mechanisms of cochlear symptoms, and explores future pathways for precise classification and targeted intervention, aiming to expand clinical thinking and promote the standardized management of this disease.

Reconstructing the complex human behaviours that manifest in the Palaeolithic archaeological record remains an elusive but important challenge for capturing traces of how the human mind evolved. The roughly 1.5 million years of handaxe-making throughout the Acheulean provides a consistently preserved manifestation of hominin technological skills. Here, we analyse 1108 3D scans of handaxes from 12 sites in the Great Rift Valley of eastern Africa and the southern Levant spanning much of the Acheulean. We set out to chart the evolution of Acheulean toolmaking skill using a suite of computational 3D methods to quantify how well these handaxes have been thinned, shaped, and sharpened; traits which demand manual dexterity, planning, and hierarchical cognition. We find evidence that cognitive evolution likely played a role in improvements in handaxe-making skill, but only in the first half of the Acheulean. The most skilfully made handaxes among our sample begin to be made by about one million years ago. Any increases in cranial capacity, cognitive complexity, or manual dexterity after this point do not make a noticeable impact on how skilfully handaxes were made, and nor does raw material quality. Instead, the techno-morphology of handaxes appears to be relatively untethered from evolutionary constraints after about a million years ago, at which point we need to seek alternative explanations for handaxe variability. Above all, we show that the difficult pursuit of lowering bifacial asymmetry was more often achieved than any other skilful attribute, suggesting it was a fundamental goal of handaxe-making. Attempting to maintain 3D symmetry appears to be a common goal throughout the entire Acheulean and was routinely achieved by its second half. This capacity to consistently maintain bifacial balance while knapping was in place by at least 1.0 Ma, revealing the evolved technological abilities and hierarchical cognition of Acheulean hominins. • We analyse 1108 3D scans of Acheulean handaxes from 12 sites from the Great Rift Valley. • Computational 3D methods were used to estimate how skilfully each handaxe was made. • Hominins enacted handaxe reduction sequences with equivalent fidelity on raw materials of different qualities. • Early improvements in handaxe-making skill were likely governed by cognitive evolution, but not later improvements. • Acheulean knappers appear to be aiming to minimise bifacial asymmetry and routinely achieved this by one million years ago.

Understanding variation in cognitive abilities is critical to understanding both the evolution and development of cognition. In this study, we examined the stability, structure, and predictability of individual differences in cognitive abilities in great apes across a broad range of domains, including social cognition, reasoning about quantities, executive function, and inferential reasoning. We administered six tasks to 48 individuals from four species, spanning 10 sessions over 1.5 years. Task performance was most strongly predicted by stable, individual-specific characteristics rather than transient or group-level variables. Using additional data from the same individuals in other tasks, we found substantial positive correlations between nonsocial tasks. In contrast, tasks measuring social cognition were not correlated either with each other or with nonsocial measures. Future studies should work toward mechanistic models of great apes' cognitive processes to build an understanding of the evolution of cognition based on process-level commonalities across species.

Methods to detect accelerated evolution have identified many genomic regions with unexpectedly rapid evolution in the human lineage—significantly more than in chimpanzees, our closest living relatives. However, these methods focus on accelerated sequence evolution of short non-coding regions, leaving open the questions of how to identify accelerated evolution of molecular function, as opposed to sequence, and whether accelerated evolution has shaped the human genome more broadly. Here, we introduce a new approach to detect accelerated evolution: Function-Aware Statistical Test for Evolutionary Rates (FASTER). In contrast to previous methods, FASTER can detect not only accelerated evolution of sequence, but also of predicted function, and can be applied to any set of genomic regions. Applying this method to humans and chimpanzees, we identified protein-coding, untranslated (UTR), and non-coding regions with accelerated evolution of function. Across all these genomic levels, we consistently found more acceleration in conserved sites in the human lineage compared to chimpanzee, many of which are predicted to reduce protein stability or chromatin accessibility. Multiple lines of evidence suggest this human-acceleration was driven by positive selection on brain development and cognition which has continued to shape human evolution even in the past several thousand years. Collectively, these results demonstrate the power of genome-wide scans for the evolution of predicted function and specifically suggest that an accelerated rate of reduction in function—including widespread decreases in cis-regulatory activity—may have been a major driver of both ancient and recent human evolution.

Research on the relationship between the evolution of ontogenetic locomotor milestones and the emergence of advanced cognition in early hominins is reviewed and discussed from an evo-devo perspective that incorporates theoretical underpinnings from the extended evolutionary synthesis. Comparative ontogenetic data from chimpanzee and human infants shed light on likely derivations in hominin locomotor milestones, their effect on the emergence of habitual bipedalism, and the latter's probable contribution(s) to cognitive evolution. Human babies' locomotor milestone of crawling on hands and knees is hypothesized to have been derived during hominin evolution in place of a knuckle-walking developmental stage that likely existed in the apelike predecessors of the earliest hominins. A review of comparative research suggests that evolutionary modifications in crawling, sitting, and pointing in addition to selection for bipedalism, contributed to the progressive evolution of both locomotion and advanced cognition in hominins. Comparisons of the ontogenetic development of locomotor stages in chimpanzee and human infants suggest that locomotor evolution and the emergence of advanced cognition were deeply intertwined during hominin evolution.

The SDGs and the New Urban Agenda both stress the importance of strengthening urban–rural linkages to promote balanced and inclusive development. Taking China as a case, this paper explores the underlying mechanisms driving the evolution of urban–rural relations. Existing studies have primarily periodized China’s urban–rural relations based on institutional changes, with limited attention to their endogenous evolutionary mechanisms. Drawing on New Institutional Economics, this study develops an “institutional–technological–cognitive” framework. It argues that China’s urban–rural relations have evolved through three stages: prior to the Reform and Opening-Up, institution-led governance resulted in urban–rural separation; in the 1980s–2010s, technological change reshaped the constraints and return structures of factor flows, resulting in urban–rural imbalance; in the 2010s–the present, early urban–rural integration was marked by tensions between cognitive reconstruction and existing institutional arrangements. Throughout the three stages, cognition has evolved from ideological cognition to opportunity-driven cognition and further to value-driven cognition, with its agency continuously strengthening and gradually becoming a key variable influencing the effectiveness of institutional operations and the pathways of technological empowerment. Accordingly, urban–rural relations should be understood not only as the outcome of factor allocation shaped by institutions and technology, but also as a dynamic structure embedded in the evolution of cognition. The advancement of urban–rural integration should place greater emphasis on people-centered cognitive transformation, rather than relying on improvements in factor mobility or population urbanization.

Human collective intelligence (CI)-the capacity of groups to solve problems, make decisions and acquire knowledge beyond individual capabilities-is here understood as an emergent phenomenon that evolved in our lineage from a distinct trajectory of epistemic niche construction (ENC), and progressively sustained the latter. Humans systematically alter their informational landscapes in materially visible ways by creating enduring spatial and artefactual scaffolds for improved cognitive performance and social coordination. In this paper, we propose a set of criteria to define ENC and track its emergence in the archaeological record. These criteria highlight the importance of persistent, publicly accessible and evolutionarily incremental modifications that sustained behavioural coordination among individuals in space and time. We apply this framework to three major domains of material culture: the structuring of space for collective action, the culturalization of the human body and the emergence of exosomatic artefacts to store coded information. We argue that these practices did not merely externalize knowledge but progressively transformed material culture and environments into targeted epistemic infrastructures able to scaffold and amplify group-level performances characteristic of CI, thus shedding light on the evolution of human cognition and social organization. This article is part of the theme issue 'The evolution of collective intelligence'.

Generative artificial intelligence has transformed from a niche research tool into an ambient feature of daily life for Generation Z (Gen Z), reshaping how this cohort learns, thinks, and prepares for professional futures. This manuscript synthesizes evidence from a systematic literature review (SLR) of 65 peer-reviewed sources spanning 2016 to 2026 with empirical findings from a cross-sectional descriptive-correlational study of 41 high school students at SMK Pembangunan JAYA YAKAPI, Indonesia. Following the PRISMA 2020 protocol, the SLR draws on Scopus, CRIS Reference, and Google Scholar databases. The empirical study assessed students' AI literacy across three subscales—AI understanding and usage, critical and ethical AI literacy, and career and future readiness—and examined their responses to a structured AI literacy workshop. Preliminary Cronbach's alpha values of 0.886 for the AI literacy scale and 0.940 for the workshop response scale indicate strong instrument reliability. A Spearman rank correlation of approximately 0.60 (p < 0.001) between AI literacy and workshop response scores was found among matched respondents, indicating a moderately strong positive association. The synthesis reveals a persistent paradox: while the majority of Gen Z students regularly use AI tools, fewer than 25% can demonstrate foundational knowledge of how these systems operate or govern user data. The AI Literacy is proposed as a practical and theoretically grounded curriculum framework integrating functional, critical, and ethics literacy dimensions. The evidence collectively positions AI ethics literacy as the most consequential lever available to educators seeking to protect intellectual autonomy in an AI-saturated learning environment.

This article analyzes the so-called visual turn, which represents a subsequent shift in the philosophical paradigm of modern knowledge. This concept boasts the broadest level of generalization among related concepts, such as the iconic turn and the pictorial turn. It is widely recognized that the visual turn occurred after the linguistic one, to some extent modifying its implications. The article provides a comparative analysis of the outcomes generated by these two phenomena. By reviewing the scholarly discourse on the causes of the visual turn, the study categorizes the factors that facilitated this shift and underscores the role of fine arts within its structure. The current stage of development in fine art serves as both a prerequisite and a mode of its implementation, as contemporary painting and graphics significantly shapes the content of the visual turn. Furthermore, the analysis highlights the impact of the postmodern cultural situation on the formation of this phenomenon. It reveals the significance of the emerging digital reality for the visual turn within the structure of cognition. To investigate this process, N.A. Bernstein’s model of the levels of construction of movements is applied. The structure of the visual turn is presented as a result of the development of systemic inversion in the hierarchical system of levels of human activity. A comparison with the similar structure of the linguistic turn is provided outlining the connection between these two phenomena. It demonstrates that during the visual turn, one of the subordinate hierarchical levels of human activity acquires a dominant role. The role of artificial intelligence in the visual turn is separately considered. On this basis, it is concluded that the visual turn is not a coincidental confluence of circumstances, but a predetermined stage in the evolution of cognition, driven by both ontological and epistemological factors.

There are several previous findings, both theoretical and experimental, that have paved the way toward the view of human evolution as the “survival of the wittiest,” subject to sexual selection, offering better explanatory power than the “survival of the friendliest.” While research on language evolution has largely neglected the artistic dimension, the fitness in humans is correlated with linguistic eloquence, including humor. This is one of those cases where science can only explain a phenomenon by considering its artistic dimension, and in which linguistic creativity and genetics come into direct contact. My argument is that selection for quick-wittedness (using and combining words in a clever and funny way), specific to language and unique to humans, needs to be added to the complex picture of human evolution, relevant from the earliest stages of language/grammar. Wittiness is a trait that allows competition (by “outwitting” others) while at the same time favoring “friendliness” in that it provides an excellent platform for replacing physical aggression with verbal behavior and cognitive contest, the hallmarks of human nature. This proposal is based on a precise linguistic reconstruction of the earliest stages of grammar, providing linguistic detail (“living fossils”) necessary for hypothesis testing, including neuroimaging experiments.

This research employs an interdisciplinary perspective to examine the methodological parameters of educational reforms that gained momentum within the Ottoman Empire during the 18th and 19th centuries, tracing their organic links to the Usul-i Jadid (New Method) movement in the Turkestan region. The study subjects the primary pillars of the Ottoman educational framework-Sibyan schools, madrasas, and the Enderun School-to an analytical comparison across three fundamental variables: pedagogical objectives, curricular content, and instructional methodologies. The transition from a traditional deductive educational model to a rational pedagogy integrating the exact sciences was not confined to the imperial center; it catalyzed an extensive network of intellectual transfer stretching along the Istanbul-Kazan-Bakhchisaray axis to the Kazakh steppe. Drawing upon Ismail Bey Gaspirali’s foundational vision of 1881, this study utilizes primary sources to demonstrate how the Usul-i Sawtiya (phonetic method) in Turkestan and the educational vision of the Alash movement were constructed as an ideological bulwark against the assimilationist policies of Tsarist Russia. The research posits that these modernization initiatives were not merely a cognitive evolution but a calculated legal and political strategy designed to provide Muslim subjects with the procedural agency required to seek justice in courts, countering the Russian colonial administration's policy of rendering subjects “voiceless” within the bureaucracy. By synthesizing the critique of “reading without comprehension” in traditional education-as highlighted by Zhanbota Sashka with Gaspirali’s observation of the “mute subject” under colonial duress, this study demonstrates that the Usul-i Jadid constituted a “pedagogical revolution” and a strategic “mental defense perimeter” that transformed mechanical literacy into conscious subjectivity. The findings reveal that the pedagogical bridge institutionalized through entities such as the Terbiye-i Etfal Association evolved beyond socio-cultural accumulation into the systematic construction of national identity and the ideal of political liberty.

Understanding the evolution of self-awareness, which is defined as the capacity to reflect on oneself as an individual, in nonhuman animals holds far-reaching implications for understanding the evolution of consciousness, cognition and ethical considerations that shape the treatment of animals. The mirror self-recognition test, which was developed in the 1970s, has been widely used to assess individual self-recognition, often equated with a certain level of self-awareness and higher-order cognition. In this review, the findings from mirror self-recognition and related tests, such as ecologically adapted, nonvisual modality and body-awareness paradigms, were synthesized. A total of 89 studies on 62 species from 17 orders were included, and significant conceptual, methodological and taxonomic biases inherent in the mirror self-recognition paradigm were highlighted. Such biases include anthropocentric assumptions about the universality of visual self-recognition, the binary pass or fail structure of the test and the over-representation of ‘large-brained’ species. In addition, the STRANGE framework reveals how subject-level variables, such as rearing history and personality, can influence outcomes. Although this review focuses on the mirror self-recognition test as a widely applied standard paradigm for assessing self-awareness, the conceptual, methodological and taxonomic biases discussed are broadly relevant across the fields of animal cognition and behaviour. By highlighting these pervasive biases, this review aims to raise awareness among animal behaviour researchers and encourage the design of future studies that address these limitations by testing a broader range of species, developing more ecologically relevant testing paradigms and transparently reporting the STRANGEness of study subjects. By addressing long-standing biases in the field of animal behaviour, we can develop a richer and more nuanced understanding of the diverse evolutionary drivers of self-awareness across the animal kingdom. • Review identifies the key biases in mirror self-recognition studies across taxa. • Large-brained species are overrepresented, limiting the generalizability of results. • Nonvisual and ecologically adapted tests provide broader insights into self-awareness. • Inclusive and bias-aware approaches are necessary in animal behaviour research.