Evolution Of Cognitive Abilities Research Articles

Matching-to-Sample Task Training of a Killer Whale (Orcinus orca).

Matching-to-sample tasks have been a useful method in visual cognitive studies on non-human animals. The use of touch panels in matching-to-sample tasks has contributed to cognitive studies on terrestrial animals; however, there has been a difficulty in using these devices underwater, which is one of the factors that has slowed the progress of visual studies on underwater animals. Cetaceans (e.g., dolphins and whales) are highly adapted to underwater environments, and further studies on their cognitive abilities are needed to advance our understanding of the interactions between environmental factors and the evolution of cognitive abilities. In this study, we aimed to develop a new experimental method in which a captive killer whale performed a matching-to-sample task using a monitor shown through an underwater window as if a touch panel were used. In order to confirm the usefulness of this method, one simple experiment on mirror image discrimination was conducted, and the pairs with mirror images were shown to be more difficult to identify than the pairs with other normal images. The advantages of using this method include (1) simplicity in the devices and stimuli used in the experiments, (2) appropriate and rigorous experimental control, (3) the possibility of increasing the number of individuals to be tested and interspecies comparisons, and (4) contributions to animal welfare. The use of this method solves some of the problems in previous visual cognitive studies on cetaceans, and it suggests the further possibility of future comparative cognitive studies. It is also expected to contribute to animal welfare in terms of cognitive enrichment, and it could help with the proposal of new exhibition methods in zoos and aquariums.

Digest: environmental variability as a constraint on cognitive evolution in lizards.

How does ecology influence cognitive evolution in lizards? Taking a comparative approach, De Meester et al. (2022) discovered that species living in temporally fluctuating environments tend to perform relatively poorly on cognitive tasks associated with behavioral flexibility compared to species living in more climatically stable environments. The negative association between environmental variability and cognitive performance suggests that stochastic environments can hamper, rather than stimulate, the evolution of cognitive ability.

Sulci 3D mapping from human cranial endocasts: A powerful tool to study hominin brain evolution.

Key questions in paleoneurology concern the timing and emergence of derived cerebral features within the human lineage. Endocasts are replicas of the internal table of the bony braincase that are widely used in paleoneurology as a proxy for reconstructing a timeline for hominin brain evolution in the fossil record. The accurate identification of cerebral sulci imprints in endocasts is critical for assessing the topographic extension and structural organisation of cortical regions in fossil hominins. High‐resolution imaging techniques combined with established methods based on population‐specific brain atlases offer new opportunities for tracking detailed endocranial characteristics. This study provides the first documentation of sulcal pattern imprints from the superolateral surface of the cerebrum using a population‐based atlas technique on extant human endocasts. Human crania from the Pretoria Bone Collection (South Africa) were scanned using micro‐CT. Endocasts were virtually extracted, and sulci were automatically detected and manually labelled. A density map method was applied to project all the labels onto an averaged endocast to visualise the mean distribution of each identified sulcal imprint. This method allowed for the visualisation of inter‐individual variation of sulcal imprints, for example, frontal lobe sulci, correlating with previous brain‐MRI studies and for the first time the extensive overlapping of imprints in historically debated areas of the endocast (e.g. occipital lobe). In providing an innovative, non‐invasive, observer‐independent method to investigate human endocranial structural organisation, our analytical protocol introduces a promising perspective for future research in paleoneurology and for discussing critical hypotheses on the evolution of cognitive abilities among hominins.

Mate Choice, Sex Roles and Sexual Cognition in Vertebrates: Mate Choice Turns Cognition or Cognition Turns Mate Choice?

The idea of “smart is sexy,” meaning superior cognition provides competitive benefits in mate choice and, therefore, evolutionary advantages in terms of reproductive fitness, is both exciting and captivating. Cognitively flexible individuals perceive and adapt more dynamically to (unpredictable) environmental changes. The sex roles that females and males adopt within their populations can vary greatly in response to the prevalent mating system. Based on how cognition determines these grossly divergent sex roles, different selection pressures could possibly shape the (progressive) evolution of cognitive abilities, suggesting the potential to induce sexual dimorphisms in superior cognitive abilities. Associations between an individual’s mating success, sexual traits and its cognitive abilities have been found consistently across vertebrate species and taxa, providing evidence that sexual selection may well shape the supporting cognitive prerequisites. Yet, while superior cognitive abilities provide benefits such as higher feeding success, improved antipredator behavior, or more favorable mate choice, they also claim costs such as higher energy levels and metabolic rates, which in turn may reduce fecundity, growth, or immune response. There is compelling evidence in a variety of vertebrate taxa that females appear to prefer skilled problem-solver males, i.e., they prefer those that appear to have better cognitive abilities. Consequently, cognition is also likely to have substantial effects on sexual selection processes. How the choosing sex assesses the cognitive abilities of potential mates has not been explored conclusively yet. Do cognitive skills guide an individual’s mate choice and does learning change an individual’s mate choice decisions? How and to which extent do individuals use their own cognitive skills to assess those of their conspecifics when choosing a mate? How does an individual’s role within a mating system influence the choice of the choosing sex in this context? Drawing on several examples from the vertebrate world, this review aims to elucidate various aspects associated with cognitive sex differences, the different roles of males and females in social and sexual interactions, and the potential influence of cognition on mate choice decisions. Finally, future perspectives aim to identify ways to answer the central question of how the triad of sex, cognition, and mate choice interacts.

Dynamic latent variable models for the analysis of cognitive abilities in the elderly population.

Cognitive functioning is a key indicator of overall individual health. Identifying factors related to cognitive status, especially in later life, is of major importance. We concentrate on the analysis of the temporal evolution of cognitive abilities in the elderly population. We propose to model the individual cognitive functioning as a multidimensional latent process that accounts also for the effects of individual-specific characteristics (gender, age, and years of education). The proposed model is specified within the generalized linear latent variable framework, and its efficient estimation is obtained using a recent approximation technique, called dimensionwise quadrature. It provides a fast and streamlined approximate inference for complex models, with better or no degradation in accuracy compared with standard techniques. The methodology is applied to the cognitive assessment data from the Health and Retirement Study combined with the Asset and Health Dynamic study in the years between 2006 and 2010. We evaluate the temporal relationship between two dimensions of cognitive functioning, that is, episodic memory and general mental status. We find a substantial influence of the former on the evolution of the latter, as well as evidence of severe consequences on both cognitive abilities among less-educated and older individuals.

Social competition stimulates cognitive performance in a sex-specific manner.

Social interactions are thought to be a critical driver in the evolution of cognitive ability. Cooperative interactions, such as pair bonding, rather than competitive interactions have been largely implicated in the evolution of increased cognition. This is despite competition traditionally being a very strong driver of trait evolution. Males of many species track changes in their social environment and alter their reproductive strategies in response to anticipated levels of competition. We predict this to be cognitively challenging. Using a Drosophila melanogaster model, we are able to distinguish between the effects of a competitive environment versus generic social contact by exposing flies to same-sex same-species competition versus different species partners, shown to present non-competitive contacts. Males increase olfactory learning/memory and visual memory after exposure to conspecific males only, a pattern echoed by increased expression of synaptic genes and an increased need for sleep. For females, largely not affected by mating competition, the opposite pattern was seen. The results indicate that specific social contacts dependent on sex, not simply generic social stimulation, may be an important evolutionary driver for cognitive ability in fruit flies.

Egg recognition and brain size in a cuckoo host

The evolution of animal brain size and cognitive ability is a topic of central significance in evolutionary ecology. Interspecific brood parasitism imposes severe selection pressures on hosts favoring the evolution of cuckoo egg recognition and rejection. However, recognizing and rejecting foreign parasitic eggs are enormous cognitive challenges for cuckoo hosts, which might select for an increase in brain size in birds with this capacity. To explore the association between cuckoo parasitism and the evolution of brain size in cinereous tits (Parus cinereus), we used two types of experimental parasitic eggs, real mimetic white-rumped munia (Lonchura striata) eggs and non-mimetic blue model eggs, to test the egg recognition ability of female cinereous tits, thereby comparing brain size variation among individuals that were able to recognize foreign eggs and those that lacked this ability. Interestingly, our results however did not support the prediction that cuckoo parasitism selects for an increase in brain size of host birds, since brain size of egg rejecters was not significantly larger than that of accepters. Hence, this study suggested that the evolution of cognitive ability did not allow recognition of foreign eggs by female cinereous tits. That was the case despite the evolution of a larger brain may have allowed for a reduction in the cost of brood parasitism by cuckoos.

Predictability and variability of association patterns in sooty mangabeys

In many group-living animal species, interactions take place in changing social environments, increasing the information processing necessary to optimize social decision-making. Communities with different levels of spatial and temporal cohesion should differ in the predictability of association patterns. While the focus in this context has been on primate species with high fission-fusion dynamics, little is known about the variability of association patterns in species with large groups and high temporal cohesion, where group size and the environment create unstable subgroups. Here, we use sooty mangabeys as a model species to test predictability on two levels: on the subgroup level and on the dyadic level. Our results show that the entirety of group members surrounding an individual is close to random in sooty mangabeys; making it unlikely that individuals can predict the exact composition of bystanders for any interaction. At the same time, we found predictable dyadic associations based on assortative mixing by age, kinship, reproductive state in females, and dominance rank; potentially providing individuals with the ability to partially predict which dyads can be usually found together. These results indicate that animals living in large cohesive groups face different challenges from those with high fission-fusion dynamics, by having to adapt to fast-changing social contexts, while unable to predict who will be close-by in future interactions. At the same time, entropy measures on their own are unable to capture the predictability of association patterns in these groups.Significance statementWhile the challenges created by high fission-fusion dynamics in animal social systems and their impact on the evolution of cognitive abilities are relatively well understood, many species live in large groups without clear spatio-temporal subgrouping. Nonetheless, they show remarkable abilities in considering their immediate social environment when making social decisions. Measures of entropy of association patterns have recently been proposed to measure social complexity across species. Here, we evaluate suggested entropy measures in sooty mangabeys. The high entropy of their association patterns would indicate that subgroup composition is largely random, not allowing individuals to prepare for future social environments. However, the existence of strong assortativity on the dyadic level indicates that individuals can still partially predict who will be around whom, even if the overall audience composition might be unclear. Entropy alone, therefore, captures social complexity incompletely, especially in species facing fast-changing social environments.

SSS-test: a novel test for detecting positive selection on RNA secondary structure

BackgroundLong non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) play an important role in regulating gene expression and are thus important for determining phenotypes. Most attempts to measure selection in lncRNAs have focused on the primary sequence. The majority of small RNAs and at least some parts of lncRNAs must fold into specific structures to perform their biological function. Comprehensive assessments of selection acting on RNAs therefore must also encompass structure. Selection pressures acting on the structure of non-coding genes can be detected within multiple sequence alignments. Approaches of this type, however, have so far focused on negative selection. Thus, a computational method for identifying ncRNAs under positive selection is needed.ResultsWe introduce the SSS-test (test for Selection on Secondary Structure) to identify positive selection and thus adaptive evolution. Benchmarks with biological as well as synthetic controls yield coherent signals for both negative and positive selection, demonstrating the functionality of the test. A survey of a lncRNA collection comprising 15,443 families resulted in 110 candidates that appear to be under positive selection in human. In 26 lncRNAs that have been associated with psychiatric disorders we identified local structures that have signs of positive selection in the human lineage.ConclusionsIt is feasible to assay positive selection acting on RNA secondary structures on a genome-wide scale. The detection of human-specific positive selection in lncRNAs associated with cognitive disorder provides a set of candidate genes for further experimental testing and may provide insights into the evolution of cognitive abilities in humans.AvailabilityThe SSS-test and related software is available at: https://github.com/waltercostamb/SSS-test. The databases used in this work are available at: http://www.bioinf.uni-leipzig.de/Software/SSS-test/.

Natural Selection and The Genetics of Psychiatric Disorders

Overall Abstract Cognitive abilities are widely regarded as the traits that most distinguish humans from other animals. The evolution of cognitive abilities has been studied for a long time by the fields of neuroanatomy and psychology, and only recently has become tractable by evolutionary genetics. Comparative genomic approaches have permitted the deep study of a handful of genes involved in cognition and language, of which the most notable is probably FOXP2. However, the intrinsic poligenicity of cognitive phenotypes has hindered progress in this area. In 2009, Konopka and Geschwind (Neuron 21: 231–244) reasoned that comprehensive evolutionary analyses in cognitive or psychiatric complex traits required the integration of multiple levels of phenotype and genotype data. Currently, high resolution genomic data has become available for most human populations, primate species and even from extinct archaic hominins, such as Neandertals or Denisovans. This symposium will host presentations that will show how this data can be combined with the analytic pipelines commonly used in clinical genetic research, and how genomic signatures of natural selection can be found in psychiatric disorders and related phenotypes. The speakers will also discuss the relevance of these findings for the long term goals of the psychiatric research community, including the prioritization of genes for functional studies and the greater understanding of the nature of psychiatric disorders.

How does cognition shape social relationships?

The requirements of living in social groups, and forming and maintaining social relationships are hypothesized to be one of the major drivers behind the evolution of cognitive abilities. Most empirical studies investigating the relationships between sociality and cognition compare cognitive performance between species living in systems that differ in social complexity. In this review, we ask whether and how individuals benefit from cognitive skills in their social interactions. Cognitive abilities, such as perception, attention, learning, memory, and inhibitory control, aid in forming and maintaining social relationships. We investigate whether there is evidence that individual variation in these abilities influences individual variation in social relationships. We then consider the evolutionary consequences of the interaction between sociality and cognitive ability to address whether bi-directional relationships exist between the two, such that cognition can both shape and be shaped by social interactions and the social environment. In doing so, we suggest that social network analysis is emerging as a powerful tool that can be used to test for directional causal relationships between sociality and cognition. Overall, our review highlights the importance of investigating individual variation in cognition to understand how it shapes the patterns of social relationships.This article is part of the theme issue 'Causes and consequences of individual differences in cognitive abilities'.

The performance of cleaner wrasse, Labroides dimidiatus, in a reversal learning task varies across experimental paradigms.

Testing performance in controlled laboratory experiments is a powerful tool for understanding the extent and evolution of cognitive abilities in non-human animals. However, cognitive testing is prone to a number of potential biases, which, if unnoticed or unaccounted for, may affect the conclusions drawn. We examined whether slight modifications to the experimental procedure and apparatus used in a spatial task and reversal learning task affected performance outcomes in the bluestreak cleaner wrasse, Labroides dimidiatus (hereafter “cleaners”). Using two-alternative forced-choice tests, fish had to learn to associate a food reward with a side (left or right) in their holding aquarium. Individuals were tested in one of four experimental treatments that differed slightly in procedure and/or physical set-up. Cleaners from all four treatment groups were equally able to solve the initial spatial task. However, groups differed in their ability to solve the reversal learning task: no individuals solved the reversal task when tested in small tanks with a transparent partition separating the two options, whereas over 50% of individuals solved the task when performed in a larger tank, or with an opaque partition. These results clearly show that seemingly insignificant details to the experimental set-up matter when testing performance in a spatial task and might significantly influence the outcome of experiments. These results echo previous calls for researchers to exercise caution when designing methodologies for cognition tasks to avoid misinterpretations.

Lineage divergence of activity-driven transcription and evolution of cognitive ability.

Excitation-transcription coupling shapes network formation during brain development and controls neuronal survival, synaptic function and cognitive skills in the adult. New studies have uncovered differences in the transcriptional responses to synaptic activity between humans and mice. These differences are caused both by the emergence of lineage-specific activity-regulated genes and by the acquisition of signal-responsive DNA elements in gene regulatory regions that determine whether a gene can be transcriptionally induced by synaptic activity or alter the extent of its inducibility. Such evolutionary divergence may have contributed to lineage-related advancements in cognitive abilities.

How could affect stress, PEP and sex in working memory?

BackgroundThe first episode of psychosis is a crucial period when early intervention can alter the trajectory of the young person's ongoing mental health and general functioning. Cognitive abilities are nuclear for the social recovery. Stress impairs higher cognitive processes, dependent on the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and that involve maintenance and integration of information over extended periods, including working memory and attention. Different mechanism are involved such as HPA-Axis hyperactivity, affecting PFC. Recently, investigations show the different evolution of cognitive abilities between different sex in WM.MethodsA sample of 41 FEPs and 39 healthy subjects were evaluated. The variables assessed were verbal and visual memory, attention, working memory, processing speed, mental flexibility, verbal fluency, motor coordination, planning ability and intelligence.ResultsWe found an interaction between age (< 16 years and > 16 years) and group (psychosis vs. controls) in working memory (P = 0.04). There were no difference in men < 16 years old control group and men with same age plus psychosis (5.87 ± 1.57 vs. 5.83 ± 1; P = 0.1) in WM. However, this work was found to be significantly different in the univariant analysis of working memory in the group < 16 years old women control (7.30 ± 1.56) and women psychosis group (5.61 ± 1.91).ConclusionSocial cognition and stress seem to be directly relation. Some studies show that stress enhance cognition performance in men while impairing it in women. Stress affect a variety of cognitive processes such attention and working memory. Deficit in social cognition are present in the prodromal phases of psychosis.Disclosure of interestThe authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Genomic data can illuminate the architecture and evolution of cognitive abilities.

Does general intelligence exist across species, and has it been a target of natural selection? These questions can be addressed with genomic data, which can rule out artifacts by demonstrating that distinct cognitive abilities are genetically correlated and thus share a biological substrate. This work has begun with data from humans and can be extended to other species; it should focus not only on general intelligence but also specific capacities like language and spatial ability.

Epistemological foundations of investigation of cognitive evolution

Epistemological foundations for modeling of cognitive evolution are characterized. Cognitive evolution is the evolution of cognitive abilities of biological organisms. The important result of this evolution is the human thinking, which is used at scientific cognition of nature. The related epistemological viewpoints of David Hume, Immanuel Kant, Konrad Lorenz, and Eugene Wigner are outlined. The sketch program for future investigations of cognitive evolution is proposed; initial models of these studies are outlined. According to the presented analysis, it is possible to believe the following. Investigations of cognitive evolution are directed to analyze the fundamental problems: “Why is human thinking applicable to cognition of nature?”, “How did human thinking origin in the process of biological evolution?” There are powerful backgrounds for considered investigations: (1) models of autonomous cognitive agents, (2) biological investigations of animal cognitive features. Studies of cognitive evolution would have broad interdisciplinary relations. These studies should contribute significantly to the development of the scientific point of view.

Learning ability in bank voles selected for high aerobic metabolism, predatory behaviour and herbivorous capability

Although great progress has been made in understanding neurological mechanisms of cognitive processes, the questions concerning interrelation between evolution of cognitive abilities and evolution of diverse life histories and adaptive strategies remains largely open. We approached the problem using a unique experimental evolution model system: lines of bank voles selected for high swim-induced aerobic metabolism, intensity of predatory behaviour towards crickets, and ability to grow on a low-quality herbivorous diet. To test a hypothesis that selection for these traits resulted in correlated changes in spatial learning and memory, voles from generation 13 of the selected and unselected control lines were examined in Morris water maze. Most of the individuals successfully learned the position of the platform hidden under water surface, but the spatial learning scores did not differ significantly between selection directions. The results are not consistent with either the hypothesis of a functional trade-off between high cognitive abilities and capability to cope with adverse nutritional conditions, or the hypothesis of a positive link between evolution of cognitive abilities and high aerobic exercise performance.

Male cognitive performance declines in the absence of sexual selection

Sexual selection is responsible for the evolution of male ornaments and armaments, but its role in the evolution of cognition--the ability to process, retain and use information--is largely unexplored. Because successful courtship is likely to involve processing information in complex, competitive sexual environments, we hypothesized that sexual selection contributes to the evolution and maintenance of cognitive abilities in males. To test this, we removed mate choice and mate competition from experimental populations of Drosophila melanogaster by enforcing monogamy for over 100 generations. Males evolved under monogamy became less proficient than polygamous control males at relatively complex cognitive tasks. When faced with one receptive and several unreceptive females, polygamous males quickly focused on receptive females, whereas monogamous males continued to direct substantial courtship effort towards unreceptive females. As a result, monogamous males were less successful in this complex setting, despite being as quick to mate as their polygamous counterparts with only one receptive female. This diminished ability to use past information was not limited to the courtship context: monogamous males (but not females) also showed reduced aversive olfactory learning ability. Our results provide direct experimental evidence that the intensity of sexual selection is an important factor in the evolution of male cognitive ability.

Eurasian jays predict the food preferences of their mates

The cognitive abilities of animals continue to fascinate both scientists and nonscientists. Although the abilities of the primates, our closest living relatives, generally attract most interest, several different lines of research have demonstrated high levels of intellectual capacity in birds, particularly corvids. The members of this family are known for their large brains and have performed well in many cognitive tasks using different paradigms (1⇓–3). This finding has led to substantial revision of thinking about avian intelligence, including the suggestion of convergence in the evolution of cognitive abilities between corvids and primates (4). In PNAS, Ostojic et al. (5) add significantly to this literature with a very elegant experiment demonstrating the ability of male European jays (Garrulus glandarius) to predict the feeding preferences of their mates. The study is significant for many reasons: it demonstrates a high and unexpected level of flexibility, reports results bearing strong resemblance to human state-attribution and further confirms the importance of studying cooperative as well as competitive situations.

Cognitive skills and bacterial load: comparative evidence of costs of cognitive proficiency in birds

Parasite-mediated selection may affect the evolution of cognitive abilities because parasites may influence development of the brain, but also learning capacity. Here, we tested some predictions of this hypothesis by analyzing the relationship between complex behaviours (feeding innovations (as a measure of behavioural flexibility) and ability to detect foreign eggs in their nests (i.e. a measure of discriminatory ability)) and abundance of microorganisms in different species of birds. A positive relationship would be predicted if these cognitive abilities implied a larger number of visited environments, while if these skills favoured detection and avoidance of risky environments, a negative relationship would be the prediction. Bacterial loads of eggshells, estimated for mesophilic and potentially pathogenic bacteria (i.e. Enterococcus, Staphylococcus and Enterobacteriaceae), were used as a surrogate of probability of contact with pathogenic bacteria. We found that bird species with higher feeding innovation rates and rejection rates of experimental brood parasitic eggs had higher density of bacteria on their eggshells than the average species. Since the analysed groups of microorganisms include pathogenic bacteria, these results suggest that both feeding innovation and ability to recognize foreign eggs are costly and highlight the importance of parasite-mediated selection in explaining the evolution of cognitive abilities in animals.