Evolutionary Purpose Research Articles

Revisiting the musical reminiscence bump: insights from neurocognitive and social brain development in adolescence.

Music listening is enjoyed across the lifespan and around the world. This has spurred many theories on the evolutionary purpose of music. The Music for Social Bonding hypothesis posits that the human capacity to make music evolved for the purpose of creating and preserving relationships between one another. Considering different time periods of music use across the lifespan, adolescence is especially a period of social reorientation away from family towards peers, characterized by new social bonds and increased prosocial behavior. This shift is accompanied by notable structural and functional changes in brain networks supporting reward processing and prosocial behavior. Reviewing the extant literature on developmental cognitive neuroscience and adolescent music use, we propose that neurocognitive changes in the reward system make adolescence an ideal developmental time window for investigating interactions between prosocial behavior and reward processing, as adolescence constitutes a time of relative increase in music reward valuation. Testing this hypothesis may clarify our understanding of developmental trajectories in music reward valuation, and offer insights into why music from adults' adolescence holds a great deal of personal significance.

Sixty Years of Tinbergen’s Four Questions and Their Continued Relevance to Applied Behaviour and Welfare Research in Zoo Animals: A Commentary

Understanding animal behaviour can feel like deciphering a foreign language. In 1963, pioneering ethologist Nikolaas Tinbergen offered a key: four fundamental questions to dissect behaviour’s complexities and reduce interpretive bias. These “Four Questions” fall into two categories: Proximate (how?) and Ultimate (why?). The Proximate questions ask how the behaviour is triggered (Causation) and develops over time (Ontogeny). The Ultimate questions delve into its evolutionary history (Phylogeny) and purpose (Function). Traditionally used in behavioural ecology, Tinbergen’s framework finds new relevance in fields like sentience, welfare, conservation, and animal management. This paper illustrates how further integration of these Questions into applied research can improve outcomes. For example, captive animals can receive enrichment seemingly “unnatural” in origin and form. Does such enrichment trigger species-typical behaviours, fulfilling the same adaptive function as natural stimuli would? Understanding a species’ natural behaviour patterns and how the performance of such activities promotes positive welfare states is key to biologically relevant population management. Tinbergen’s Four Questions can help scientists to decipher the relevance of natural behaviour, and how a species’ responses to their environment indicate what individuals need and want at a specific time or place. By applying the Four Questions, we can answer this question and, in turn, refine husbandry practices and conserve behavioural diversity in managed populations. Sixty years after their conception, Tinbergen’s Four Questions remain a powerful tool for behavioural research. By embracing different biological disciplines within a unified framework, applied animal zoo science will continue to advance and provide credible evidence-based outputs.

Progressing toward Teal Organizations: An Assessment of Organizational Innovation in the Spanish Public Administrations

Organizational innovation can be a promising path for public administrations to follow to become more supportive of the realization of sustainability goals. With the Teal Organizations framework as a reference, this study explores organizational innovation in Spanish public administrations by assessing the extent and patterns of the implementation of selected innovative organizational practices, with the aim to help them improve. This study performs multivariate and individual analyses of the variance and factor analysis of the responses given by Spanish public sector employees to an online questionnaire about the degree of implementation of certain practices in their organization. The results show that there are little differences in the degree of implementation of these practices among the national, regional, and local administrations and that this implementation does not seem to be guided by the three principles of Teal Organizations: self-management, wholeness, and evolutionary purpose, but by five factors combining them, labeled as trust, task assignment, meetings management, hierarchy, and community and values. Because of the low degree of implementation of the practices under the community and values factor and the comparatively low effort required to introduce them, these practices appear as interesting options to explore when considering administrative reforms.

The Evolution of Tumor Suppressing Genes in Multicellular Organisms: Nature’s Prevention of Oncogenesis

The p53 gene family, a well-known group of genes, is the primary propagator of tumor-suppressing mechanisms in multicellular organisms. Although they are currently critical drug targets in cancer, the p53 family also serves specific functions in the development of multicellular organisms. In this paper, the current function, origin, and evolutionary purpose of the p53 family are reviewed in the evolution of multicellular organisms. The TP53 gene induces cellular responses such as apoptosis as a way to combat detrimental environmental and cellular factors that can damage the integrity of a cell’s DNA. The other two members of the p53 family are the TP63/TP73 genes. The TP63/TP73 genes are involved in the embryonic development of limbs and the neuronal system, respectively. It has been discovered that these three genes originated as an ancestral gene that later separated individually throughout the evolution of higher functioning vertebrates from invertebrates. The p53 family provides complex networks of tumor-suppressor genes that allow for the prevention of oncogenesis in multicellular organisms. The ultimate evolutionary goal of the p53 family is to preserve the integrity of their organisms from unwanted mutations, which in turn also assists their own fitness. However, the genomic evidence presented in the current literature contains gaps. Further research is needed to fill in these gaps in the genomes of multicellular organisms, in order to have a cohesive understanding of the evolutionary purpose of the p53 family, not only for the benefit of humans but for other species as well.

Pseudomonas fuscovaginae quorum sensing studies: 5% dominates cell-to-cell conversations.

Bacteria use N-acyl-l-homoserine lactone (AHL) quorum-sensing (QS) systems for population-wide phenotypic coordination. The QS configuration in Pseudomonas fuscovaginae is dramatically different from other model examples of AHL QS signaling and, thus, represents an important exception to the norm, which usually states that QS triggers population-wide phenotypic transitions in relation to cell density. We argue that the differences in QS dynamics of P. fuscovaginae highlight its different evolutionary purpose, which is ultimately dictated by the selective pressures of its natural habitat. We hope that this example will further expand our understanding of the complex and yet unknown QS-enabled sociomicrobiology. Furthermore, we argue that exemptions to the QS norm will be found in other plant-pathogenic bacterial strains that grow in similar environments and that molecularly similar QS systems do not necessarily share a similar evolutionary purpose; therefore, generalizations about bacterial cell-to-cell signaling systems function should be avoided.

Perceptions of formal pharmacy leadership on the social role of the profession and its historical evolution: A qualitative study

BackgroundIn recent years, pharmaceutical professionalism has been questioned due to the social role of pharmacy, which is ambiguous in the literature. This raises questions about the purpose of the profession among pharmacists, despite the efforts of their professional organizations and formal leaders to consolidate the occupational status of the profession. ObjectiveTo understand the social role of pharmacy in Brazil through its historical evolution based on the perceptions of formal leaders of the profession. MethodsA qualitative study was conducted between July 2020 and February 2021 with pharmacists who held leadership positions in formal and professional pharmacy organizations in Brazil. The data obtained from the interviews were submitted to content analysis. ResultsA total of 17 pharmacists participated in this study. The data analyzed presented perceptions about the social role of the pharmaceutical profession in Brazil, which promotes access to health through different means. These include the manager pharmacist, who facilitates access to public health policies; the caring pharmacist, who promotes health education and the rational use of medicines; and the technologist pharmacist, who researches, develops, and promotes access to safe and cost-effective medicines. The interviewees also discussed the evolution of this social role based on influential factors such as legislation, clinical movement, pharmaceutical education, labor market, behaviors, and attitudes of pharmacists. ConclusionIn this study, pharmaceutical professionalism was conceptualized based on its social role, which should be centered on the patient. Understanding such issues is part of the evolutionary purpose of the profession in Brazil and should be encouraged in the behaviors and attitudes of pharmacists despite the challenges faced by the profession.

In the jungle, the mighty jungle, the zebras are teal tonight: investigating the organizational forms of Generation Z-driven Italian start-ups

PurposeIn light of the new way of interpreting work spearheaded by Generation Z, the objectives of this study are to investigate (1) whether young entrepreneurs identify their start-ups with “zebras” – that is, as a concrete response to the evanescence and fantasy of “unicorns” based on the simultaneous pursuit of profit and social value, mutualism and resilience – and (2) whether they adopt a “teal” organizational configuration – that is, one characterized by evolutionary purpose, self-management and wholeness.Design/methodology/approachThrough a qualitative approach with 41 interviews, this study focuses on start-uppers and companies that are particularly innovative and promising in the Italian context, as selected by Forbes magazine in its ranking of the brightest entrepreneurs, leaders and stars under 30.FindingsThe results suggest that young entrepreneurs recognize the importance of the common themes of the zebra movement and therefore identify their startups with zebras. More specifically, Generation Z entrepreneurs: (1) pursue a dual (economic and social) purpose, (2) are mutualistic and (3) build their organizations with resilience and capital efficiency. In addition, the interviews show that the organizational approach taken follows the paradigm of teal organizations, particularly in terms of evolutionary purpose, distributed leadership and decision-making power, and employee wholeness and empowerment.Originality/valueThis is the first study to analyze the evolutionary trends of animal entrepreneurial “species” led by Generation Z entrepreneurs and organized on the basis of the teal paradigm.

Communication and social interaction in conditions of increasing sociality as a factor in the development of society

Modern society is a multidimensional, multipolar, and fragmented in many constituent aspects, community. The society lacks a unified understanding of historical retrospect and prospects, development strategies, approaches to solving life problems, including global warming, environmental pollution, threats of hunger, and depletion of resources, pandemics and conflicts. However, the most important reason for the imbalance of the world is the inability to agree. The purpose of the article is to present a constructive and conceptual picture of the interconnectedness of social communication and social interaction as medial conditions for achieving integrity and dynamic balance in society. It is noted that systemic violations of public relations and relations between people have formed a global situation of inability to carry out normal interaction in a positive vector. The communication saturation of social interaction is only a consequence of the evolutionary need of society to move to a new level of interaction of social attractors, all elementary and institutional subjects of social action. It is proposed to consider interaction in the social system as a medial factor of integration and development of society and its subsystems in the vector of achieving the necessary integrity and dynamic equilibrium. At the same time, social communication is a systemic tool for achieving the desired state, the possibilities, features and conditions for social interaction to fulfill its evolutionary functional purpose as a medial factor of the functioning and development of the social system are formulated.

Psychedelics: Brain Mechanisms

The talk takes a multi-level approach to the question of how psychedelics work in the brain. Key themes include: the pharmacology of classic serotonergic psychedelics, what this tells us about the function and evolutionary purpose of the serotonin 2A receptor, the acute brain effects of psychedelics as determined by functional brain imaging, the entropic brain hypothesis, current evidence for psychedelic therapy, the new ‘REBUS' hierarchical predictive processing model of the action of psychedelics, and how this maps on to the phenomenology of the acute psychedelic experience and therapeutic outcomes.

Aldehyde-driven transcriptional stress triggers an anorexic DNA damage response.

Endogenous DNA damage can perturb transcription, triggering a multifaceted cellular response that repairs the damage, degrades RNA polymerase II and shuts down global transcription1-4. This response is absent in the human disease Cockayne syndrome, which iscaused by loss of the Cockayne syndrome A (CSA) or CSB proteins5-7. However, the source of endogenous DNA damage and how this leads to the prominent degenerative features of this disease remain unknown. Here we find that endogenous formaldehyde impedes transcription, with marked physiological consequences. Mice deficient in formaldehyde clearance (Adh5-/-) and CSB (Csbm/m; Csb is also known as Ercc6) develop cachexiaand neurodegeneration, and succumb to kidney failure, features that resemble human Cockayne syndrome. Using single-cell RNAsequencing, we find that formaldehyde-driven transcriptional stress stimulates the expression of the anorexiogenic peptide GDF15 by a subset of kidney proximal tubule cells. Blocking this response with an anti-GDF15 antibody alleviates cachexia in Adh5-/-Csbm/m mice. Therefore, CSB provides protection to the kidney and brain against DNA damage caused by endogenous formaldehyde, while also suppressing an anorexic endocrine signal. The activation of this signal might contribute to the cachexia observed in Cockayne syndrome as wellas chemotherapy-induced anorectic weight loss. A plausible evolutionary purpose for such a response is to ensure aversion to genotoxins in food.

Location probing by males complicates sexual dynamics and successful mate‐guarding in squid groups

Reproductive fitness is defined by the successful passing of an individual's genes to the next generation. Cephalopods that mate in groups, in particular coastal squid and cuttlefish species, have evolved complex sexual tactics in order to maximize reproductive success (Morse and Huffard 2019). Through dynamic skin patterning accompanied by typical body postures, individuals send visual signals in the form of displays to potential mates and rival competitors, often engaging in escalating conflicts (Moynihan and Rodaniche 1982, Mather 2016).

The third form electric organ discharge of electric eels

The electric eel is a unique species that has evolved three electric organs. Since the 1950s, electric eels have generally been assumed to use these three organs to generate two forms of electric organ discharge (EOD): high-voltage EOD for predation and defense and low-voltage EOD for electrolocation and communication. However, why electric eels evolved three electric organs to generate two forms of EOD and how these three organs work together to generate these two forms of EOD have not been clear until now. Here, we present the third form of independent EOD of electric eels: middle-voltage EOD. We suggest that every form of EOD is generated by one electric organ independently and reveal the typical discharge order of the three electric organs. We also discuss hybrid EODs, which are combinations of these three independent EODs. This new finding indicates that the electric eel discharge behavior and physiology and the evolutionary purpose of the three electric organs are more complex than previously assumed. The purpose of the middle-voltage EOD still requires clarification.

Gestational potential space hypothesis: Evolutionary explanation of human females body fat redistribution.

Homo sapiens, as well as other primates, developed the evolutionary advantage of storing excess energy as body fat, primarily in the readily accessible visceral fat compartment when food is plentiful for use during scarcity. However, uniquely to female humans, a second transient dimorphic phenotypic change begins at menarche and is reversed by menopause. It is the diversion of visceral fat stores from the abdominal cavity to the gluteofemoral region. The evolutionary purpose for this remains unclear. The author proposes the gestational potential space hypothesis: that such fat diversion is for the reproductive purpose of increasing the potential abdominal space available for gestation and reducing the intra-abdominal pressure. This hypothesis is supported by the basic laws of physics and increased rates of maternal and fetal complications experienced by those with visceral adiposity.

Neuropsychology of the unconscious: current state of the problem

Introduction. The sphere of the unconscious includes many phenomena that have a strong influence on human behaviour and cognitive activity. Although the importance of taking into account the unconscious is evident to most psychotherapists, its role is visibly underestimated in neuropsychology. In this regard, the present state of research on brain organization of unconscious processes is of interest. Objective. The review aims to describe the current state of research on brain mechanisms of the unconscious. Procedure. The present paper describes a variety of unconscious phenomena. It also outlines widespread points of view on the correlation between consciousness and unconscious and discusses the freewill problem. The question posed is whether the research programme of neuropsychology allows studying the unconscious phenomena. The study analyses the subject matter of neuropsychology and discusses the historical change of A.R. Luria’s views on psychology of the unconscious. The paper describes the studies of brain mechanisms underlying a variety of unconscious manifestations that have been conducted within different psychological schools. The aim is to consider the essential principles of neuropsychological research of the unconscious. Conclusion. In foreign neuroscience there are numerous studies in the field of brain mechanisms of unconscious processes. Up to now, the leading positions in the sphere are taken by neuropsychoanalysis and cognitive neuroscience. In Russian neuropsychology the unconscious is barely investigated because it does not comply with the traditional research object, that is, the higher mental functions. However, in the current conditions, the research programme of neuropsychology allows studying the unconscious. The paper highlights the advantages of investigating the unconscious phenomena from the neuropsychological standpoint considering its evolutionary purpose.

The Path towards Evolutionary—Teal Organizations: A Relationship Trigger on Collaborative Platforms

The technological challenges of the so-called fourth industrial revolution, innovative inter-organizational network relations, integration in corporate strategies of sustainability challenges, or unsatisfactory levels of staff commitment stemming from complexity and related uncertainty are some of the main key issues that organizations have to face in the near future. In this context, the appearance of the ‘evolutionary organization’ model marks an important milestone in terms of a renewed identification of fundamental principles for organizations, arguably as an update or revision of systemic thinking. This model allows organizations, functioning as living beings, to be more agile and humanistic and better prepared to establish agile and trustworthy inter-organizational relationships. Collaborative platforms are possible from that ability to add value between organizations while also being closely aligned with the principles and values of evolutionary organizations. The purpose of this paper is to provide insights into how these (teal) organizations work with respect to their common principles of wholeness, evolutionary purpose, and self-management. In the end, the study intends to highlight relevant practical organizational aspects that can better facilitate the management of current and increasing complexity, as well as the transition to more humanistic-oriented organizations.

Management in the Hypermodernity

Abstract
 
 This study will discuss the transformation to a new paradigm of management in a world of volatility, uncertainty, complexity und ambiguity, that is called the VUCA-world [13] and have have great effects on organizations that face externally and internally changes and struggle between old and new management philosophies. Organizations with path-dependencies on trivial assumptions reach their limits in a VUCA-world so that they have to rethink their future vitality. Conventional management approaches interpret companies as easy handling machines with obvious behavior. In this context, monocultural companies are past-orientated, too rigid and less able to learn from experiences and adapt accordingly with a lack of creativity and innovation.
 There are several proposals to reinvent organizations such as living systems that have evolutionary purpose [11]. Ortmann [15] defines the time after the postmodernity as the hypermodernity that requires to manage contingency and dynamic complexity. That has effects on new management paradigm. This explorative literature review presents the relational management approach in the hypermodernity that is based on systemic-relational assumptions as this proposal is characterized by high sensitivity for complex fields such as Big Data. This leads to an iterative learning process design of enabling and empowering management of capabilities towards handling multioptions and contingent environments in the digital age.
 
 Keywords: Hypermodernity, management, complexity, process design.

Why We Sleep: A Hypothesis for an Ultimate or Evolutionary Origin for Sleep and Other Physiological Rhythms.

Although sleep is ubiquitous, its evolutionary purpose remains elusive. Though every species of animal, as well as many plants sleep, theories of its origin are purely physiological, e.g. to conserve energy, make repairs or to consolidate learning. An evolutionary reason for sleep would answer one of biology’s fundamental unanswered questions. When environmental conditions change on a periodic basis (winter/summer, day/night) organisms must somehow confront the change or else be less able to compete in either niche. Seasonal adaptation includes the migration of birds, changes in honeybee physiology and winter abscission in plants. Diurnal adaptation must be more rapid, forcing changes in behavior in addition to physiology. Since organisms must exist in both environments, evolution has created a way to force a change in behavior, in effect creating “different” organisms (one awake, one asleep) adapted separately to two distinct niches. We sleep to allow evolving into two competing niches. The physiology of sleep forces a change to a different state for the second niche. The physiological needs for sleep are mechanisms that have evolved to achieve this goal.

Yelena MoskovichVirtuoso

work she declares herself androgynous and enters into a brief lesbian relationship. One of the most compelling aspects of the memoir is the author’s observations on life. Of being called the N-word she observes, “It would be the first but not last time some random antagonist would try to redeem history where I’m down and they’re standing.” Of the violence in the country she reveals, “I already know that the gun will be the only hero this country will ever have.” She calls Margaret Thatcher “an unchecked disease” as immigrant violence rages in London. She even supplies commentary on the Caribbean and black American tensions of the era. Then there is the host of unusual characters , her association with the Haitian American artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, and her joining the group the Guerrilla Girls, for which she is best known. The work often reads as impressions committed to a diary and is often as raw as it is rewarding. Adele Newson-Horst Morgan State University Yelena Moskovich Virtuoso Columbus, Ohio. Two Dollar Radio. 2020. 272 pages. FIRST PUBLISHED IN 2019 in the UK, Yelena Moskovich’s Virtuoso has been rereleased for US audiences. A novel with surrealist overtones, much like Moskovich’s first novel, The Natashas (2016), Virtuoso is set bilaterally in Paris and Prague with a couple of unflattering US cities thrown in for good measure. It is primarily a tale of lesbian friendships and romantic relationships, and Moskovich handles both deftly. Friends Jana and Zorka both grew up in communist Prague and share a forever bond. It may not be too far-fetched to say that the ravenhaired , outrageous Zorka is the Freudian id belletrists like Földényi to guide their deepest level of understanding. This idea of science as the destroyer of all magic, as disallowing us anything outside of the purely material, is naïve and dangerous , particularly in a time often characterized as “post- truth.” Science does not claim that our first-person experience of feelings or consciousness are not real or somehow less real. For now, they are simply not in the scope of our scientific possibilities, and perhaps they will never be. Claiming an evolutionary purpose for love does not diminish our love for a child, partner, or parent. Instead, one may choose to view an understanding of how evolution of past life imbued us with the capacity for love as elevating, rather than diminishing it. One cannot shake the feeling that Föld ényi, along with other postmodernists, understands the Enlightenment to stand for replacing lush green forests with coal plants and conveyor belts, replacing harmony and unity with the dissolution of our selves in a gray mass of empty bodies, slouching through ever-expanding blobs of concrete and steel. A strikingly ignorant view of human development over the past three centuries, which has seen reason , science, and humanism—the ideals of the Enlightenment—staggeringly improve equality, life expectancy, education, health, happiness—nearly any metric you might devise to track the evolution of conditions of human life. However, Földényi’s critique does not only follow the usual postmodernist track but comes with a decisive religious spin. In “Mass and Spirit,” he claims that our souls have mass—in fact, “our souls are nothing other than the ‘condensation’ of the divine mass,” he writes. According to Földényi, labeling ourselves as dead and soulless “masses” lets us regard ourselves as the “prime movers of the universe,” usurping “the role of the Creator.” The indifference to our spiritual roots, the refutation of God and the divine, to him, are the ultimate causes of “increase in population, the growth of human density, the proliferation of megalopolises.” His equation is as simple as it is naïve: Man used to be with God. Then came the ideals and products of Enlightenment that broke this unity. Man has been lost and tormented ever since. It is important to discuss how community and spirituality can survive in a modern, agnostic society. Sadly, Földényi’s critique never moves in this direction. It remains wholly unclear how exactly and to what exactly we are to go back to. In “Mass...

Postural control tasks in an emotional context

Basic postural control tasks always take place in an environmental context. Environmental parameters such as optic flow, changes in support surface, and integrity of reflex loops, have been widely studied to unravel the postural control mechanisms. My research focuses on environmental parameters that have clear survival value, namely emotions. Within psychological theory, emotions serve an evolutionary purpose, and prepare the organism for adaptive physiological, cognitive, and behavioral responses. Numerous studies have found markers of these emotion responses in the way humans organize and coordinate their movements (manual, facial, postural, etc.). My own research has focused on two basic postural control tasks, namely quiet standing, and gait initiation in a particular direction. Analysis of center-of-pressure displacements during a brief emotional episode has revealed postural adjustments that are specific to emotion. Key parameters are reductions in postural sway (resembling ‘freezing’ when fearful), and tendencies to move forward (with pleasant stimuli) and backward (with unpleasant stimuli). My experimental work has also revealed that these postural responses are modulated by the duration of an emotion event, and by the arousal level experienced. Most of my studies have been conducted using healthy participants, but some of the above effects seem to be amplified in certain psychiatric conditions.

On the evolution of visual female sexual signalling.

A long-standing evolutionary puzzle surrounds female sexual signals visible around the time of ovulation. Even among just primates, why do some species have substantial sexual swellings and/or bright colorations visible around females' genital regions, while other species are like humans, with no signs of ovulation visible? What is the evolutionary purpose behind not just these signs, but also this great variation seen among species? Here, we examine the evolutionary trade-offs associated with visual ovulation signalling using agent-based modelling. Our model predicts how various factors, including male genetic heterogeneity and reproductive inequality, female physiological costs, group size, and the weighting of genetic versus non-genetic benefits coming from males, each influence the strength of ovulation signalling. Our model also predicts that increasing the impacts of infanticide will increase ovulation signalling. We use comparative primate data to show that, as predicted by our model, larger group size and higher risk of infanticide each correlate with having stronger visual ovulation signs. Overall, our work resolves some old controversies and sheds new light on the evolution of visual female sexual signalling.