Modularity, comparative cognition and human uniqueness

Darwin's claim 'that the difference in mind between man and the higher animals … is certainly one of degree and not of kind' is at the core of the comparative study of cognition. Recent research provides unprecedented support for Darwin's claim as well as new reasons to question it, stimulating new theories of human cognitive uniqueness. This article compares and evaluates approaches to such theories. Some prominent theories propose sweeping domain-general characterizations of the difference in cognitive capabilities and/or mechanisms between adult humans and other animals. Dual-process theories for some cognitive domains propose that adult human cognition shares simple basic processes with that of other animals while additionally including slower-developing and more explicit uniquely human processes. These theories are consistent with a modular account of cognition and the 'core knowledge' account of children's cognitive development. A complementary proposal is that human infants have unique social and/or cognitive adaptations for uniquely human learning. A view of human cognitive architecture as a mosaic of unique and species-general modular and domain-general processes together with a focus on uniquely human developmental mechanisms is consistent with modern evolutionary-developmental biology and suggests new questions for comparative research.     

Involving consumers in the development of an educational program for cystic fibrosis carrier screening.

Input from consumers of health care was sought in developing an educational program to be provided to individuals who are considering carrier testing for cystic fibrosis (CF). In addition, we assessed the ability of health professionals to predict consumers' priorities with regard to such information. A focus group of six middle school teachers formulated questions that they would ask in trying to decide whether they wanted carrier screening for CF. Then, other adults with (n = 39) and without (n = 60) a family history of CF were presented with the questions and were asked to select the questions in the order in which they would want them answered if offered the carrier test. After each question was answered, they were asked whether they would want the carrier test if it were offered to them. CF clinic staff, clinical geneticists, and genetic counselors (n = 31) were asked to select the questions in the order in which they believed that an adult from the general population would want them answered. There were no differences in the order in which adults with and without a family history of CF would want questions answered. Consumers would want to learn about the carrier test as well as their risk of being a carrier and of having a child with CF, before receiving information on reproductive options and the effect that a child with CF would have on the family. Of the 44% of consumers who changed their mind about wanting screening during the course of selecting questions, 52% did so after the first question that they selected.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)     

It's all in your head: the role of quantity estimation in sperm competition

The study of animal cognition has provided valuable data throughout the years, yet its reliance on laboratory work leaves some open questions. The main question is whether animals employ cognition in daily decision-making. The following discussion uses sperm competition (SC) as a test case for demonstrating the effect of cognition on routine choices, in this case, sexual selection. Cognition is manifested here by males' ability to represent the number of rivals competing with them. I claim that response to SC is driven by quantity estimation and the ability to assess competition magnitude cognitively. Hence, cognition can determine males' response to SC, and consequentially it can be selected within this context. This supports the argument that cognition constitutes an integral part of an individual's toolbox in solving real-life problems, and shows that physical and behavioural phenomena can expose cognition to selection and facilitate its evolution.     

Culture as Consensus: A Theory of Culture and Informant Accuracy

This paper presents and tests a formal mathematical model for the analysis of informant responses to systematic interview questions. We assume a situation in which the ethnographer does not know how much each informant knows about the cultural domain under consideration nor the answers to the questions. The model simultaneously provides an estimate of the cultural competence or knowledge of each informant and an estimate of the correct answer to each question asked of the informant. The model currently handles true-false, multiple-choice, andfill-in-the-blank type question formats. In familiar cultural domains the model produces good results from as few as four informants. The paper includes a table showing the number of informants needed to provide stated levels of confidence given the mean level of knowledge among the informants. Implications are discussed.     

Quantum molecular computer model of the neuron and a pathway to the union of the sciences

Cyclic nucleotide injection in neurons shows that cAMP controls a new type of membrane permeability. The neuron response to cAMP has a short delay, unusual bioenergetics and is blocked by drugs binding with the regulatory subunit of protein kinase. These data are interpreted in terms of the hypothesis that the controlling system of the living cell is a molecular (DNA, RNA, protein operators with complementary addresses), holographic (quick changeable lattice--cytoskeleton), quantum (each phonon examines whole lattice), hypersound (with wave length 100-10,000 A that does not destroy molecules) system with an inner point of view (molecular coding of questions and answers about quantum processing). Neither an electron, nor a macroscopic computer has an inner point of view.     

Culture-sensitive neural substrates of human cognition: a transcultural neuroimaging approach

Our brains and minds are shaped by our experiences, which mainly occur in the context of the culture in which we develop and live. Although psychologists have provided abundant evidence for diversity of human cognition and behaviour across cultures, the question of whether the neural correlates of human cognition are also culture-dependent is often not considered by neuroscientists. However, recent transcultural neuroimaging studies have demonstrated that one's cultural background can influence the neural activity that underlies both high- and low-level cognitive functions. The findings provide a novel approach by which to distinguish culture-sensitive from culture-invariant neural mechanisms of human cognition.     

Citizen Science as a New Tool in Dog Cognition Research

Family dogs and dog owners offer a potentially powerful way to conduct citizen science to answer questions about animal behavior that are difficult to answer with more conventional approaches. Here we evaluate the quality of the first data on dog cognition collected by citizen scientists using the Dognition.com website. We conducted analyses to understand if data generated by over 500 citizen scientists replicates internally and in comparison to previously published findings. Half of participants participated for free while the other half paid for access. The website provided each participant a temperament questionnaire and instructions on how to conduct a series of ten cognitive tests. Participation required internet access, a dog and some common household items. Participants could record their responses on any PC, tablet or smartphone from anywhere in the world and data were retained on servers. Results from citizen scientists and their dogs replicated a number of previously described phenomena from conventional lab-based research. There was little evidence that citizen scientists manipulated their results. To illustrate the potential uses of relatively large samples of citizen science data, we then used factor analysis to examine individual differences across the cognitive tasks. The data were best explained by multiple factors in support of the hypothesis that nonhumans, including dogs, can evolve multiple cognitive domains that vary independently. This analysis suggests that in the future, citizen scientists will generate useful datasets that test hypotheses and answer questions as a complement to conventional laboratory techniques used to study dog psychology.     

Smart phone, smart science: how the use of smartphones can revolutionize research in cognitive science

Investigating human cognitive faculties such as language, attention, and memory most often relies on testing small and homogeneous groups of volunteers coming to research facilities where they are asked to participate in behavioral experiments. We show that this limitation and sampling bias can be overcome by using smartphone technology to collect data in cognitive science experiments from thousands of subjects from all over the world. This mass coordinated use of smartphones creates a novel and powerful scientific "instrument" that yields the data necessary to test universal theories of cognition. This increase in power represents a potential revolution in cognitive science.     

Normal aging and cognition

It is now well documented that normal aging modifies the cognitive functioning and most observations suggest that cognition evolves in the direction of deterioration. The more frequently impaired functions are memory, attention and visual-spatial abilities. On the other hand, some abilities seem to increase, such as vocabulary. Considering the aging effect on cognition, questions remain regarding directionality, universality and reversibility. A great variability in aged related impacts is observed among subjects and among cognitive domains. Some individuals evolved more rapidly than others. Some cognitive functions are more affected by aging than others. General and specific factors are hypothesized to explain the aged related cognitive decline. Among them, educational level, health, cognitive style, life style, personality, are likely to modulate the aged related cognitive evolution by influencing attentional resources and cerebral plasticity. Cognitive resources are essential to develop adaptative strategies. During the life span, resources are activated and increased by learning and training. Considering the role of cognitive resources, successful aging is dependent on several conditions : absence of disease leading to a loss of autonomy, maintenance of cognitive and physical activities, and active and social engaged lifestyle.     

Fluctuating Minds: Spontaneous Psychophysical Variability during Mind-Wandering

Mind-wandering is the occasional distraction we experience while performing a cognitive task. It arises without any external precedent, varies over time, and interferes with the processing of sensory information. Here, we asked whether the transition from the on-task state to mind-wandering is a gradual process or an abrupt event. We developed a new experimental approach, based on the continuous, online assessment of individual psychophysical performance. Probe questions were asked whenever response times (RTs) exceeded 2 standard deviations from the participant’s average RT. Results showed that mind-wandering reports were generally preceded by slower RTs, as compared to trials preceding on-task reports. Mind-wandering episodes could be reliably predicted from the response time difference between the last and the second-to-last trials. Thus, mind-wandering reports follow an abrupt increase in behavioral variability, lasting between 2.5 and 10 seconds.     

Some prerequisites for a study of the evolution of cognition in the animal kingdom

A distinction is made between two definitions of animal cognition: the one most frequently employed in cognitive sciences considers cognition as extracting and processing information; a more phenomenologically inspired model considers it as attributing to a form of the outside world a significance, linked to the state of the animal. The respective fields of validity of these two models are discussed along with the limitations they entail, and the questions they pose to evolutionary biologists are emphasized. This is followed by a presentation of a general overview of what might be the study of the evolution of knowledge in animals.     

鸦科鸟类认知研究回顾

动物认知能力高低及认知在动物中的进化是动物研究领域面对的难题之一。鸦科鸟类在工具使用、情景记忆、抑制控制等方面有着与类人猿媲美的优异表现。本文对过去三四十年间主要的鸦科鸟类认知研究进行了分类与汇总,并将上述认知研究划分为一般认知、物理认知、社会认知等三类。一般认知能力或者称为认知基础,是指具有普遍性的能力因素,是在解决不同问题时都能表现出来的相同的心理特质;物理认知指个体对自然规律的认知,主要包括客体永久性、数能力、工具的使用等;社会认知主要指个体对其他个体的心理状态、行为动机和意向作出推测与判断的过程。本文介绍了上述三类认知能力的主要研究范式,旨在为国内动物认知研究提供理论依据。目前的研究更多地集中于鸦属的鸟类,对于鸦科中其他鸟类或是雀形目中其他鸟类的认知研究尚不充足。此外,鸦科鸟类的社会性、分布范围、觅食策略等生态因素具有显著差异,在后续的研究中,我们应该关注生态因素对鸦科鸟类认知能力的影响,或是结合鸦科鸟类的生境及习性设计出更加合理的研究范式。     

Novel behavioral tasks for studying spatial cognition in rats

Spatial tasks in rodents are commonly used to study general mechanisms of cognition. We review two groups of novel spatial tasks for rodents and discuss how they can extend our understanding of mechanisms of spatial cognition. The first group represents spatial tasks in which the subject does not locomote. Locomotion influences neural activity in brain structures important for spatial cognition. The tasks belonging to the first group make it possible to study cognitive processes without the interfering impact of locomotion. The second group represents tasks in which the subject approaches or avoids a moving object. Despite this topic is intensively studied in various animal species, little attention has been paid to it in rodents. Both groups of the tasks are powerful tools for addressing novel questions about rodent cognition.     

Mental content and evolutionary explanation

Cognitive ethology is the comparative study of animal cognition from an evolutionary perspective. As a sub-discipline of biology it shares interest in questions concerning the immediate causes and development of behavior. As a part of ethology it is also concerned with questions about the function and evolution of behavior. I examine some recent work in cognitive ethology, and I argue that the notions of mental content and representation are important to enable researchers to answer questions and state generalizations about the function and volution of behavior.I would like to thank Dorothy Cheney, Keith Donnellan, Alan Nelson, and Robert Seyfarth for their help.     

Orexin deficiency modulates cognitive flexibility in a sex-dependent manner

Cognitive flexibility is an important executive function and refers to the ability to adapt behaviors in response to changes in the environment. Of note, many brain disorders are associated with impairments in cognitive flexibility. Several classical neurotransmitter systems including dopamine, acetylcholine and noradrenaline are shown to be important for cognitive flexibility, however, there is not much known about the role of neuropeptides. The neuropeptide orexin, which is brain-widely released by neurons in the lateral hypothalamus, is a major player in maintaining sleep/wake cycle, feeding behavior, arousal, and motivational behavior. Recent studies showed a role of orexin in attention, cognition and stress-induced attenuation of cognitive flexibility by disrupting orexin signaling locally or systemically. However, it is not known so far whether brain-wide reduction or loss of orexin affects cognitive flexibility. We investigated this question by testing male and female orexin-deficient mice in the attentional set shifting task (ASST), an established paradigm of cognitive flexibility. We found that orexin deficiency impaired the intra-dimensional shift phase of the ASST selectively in female homozygous orexin-deficient mice and improved the first reversal learning phase selectively in male homozygous orexin-deficient mice. We also found that these orexin-mediated sex-based modulations of cognitive flexibility were not correlated with trait anxiety, narcoleptic episodes, and reward consumption. Our findings highlight a sexually dimorphic role of orexin in regulating cognitive flexibility and the need for further investigations of sex-specific functions of the orexin circuitry.     

Quantum-like behavior without quantum physics I

Recently there has been much interest in the possible quantum-like behavior of the human brain in such functions as cognition, the mental lexicon, memory, etc., producing a vast literature. These studies are both empirical and theoretical, the tenets of the theory in question being mainly, and apparently inevitably, those of quantum physics itself, for lack of other arenas in which quantum-like properties are presumed to obtain. However, attempts to explain this behavior on the basis of actual quantum physics going on at the atomic or molecular level within some element of brain or neuronal anatomy (other than the ordinary quantum physics that underlies everything), do not seem to survive much scrutiny. Moreover, it has been found empirically that the usual physics-like Hilbert space model seems not to apply in detail to human cognition in the large. In this paper we lay the groundwork for a theory that might explain the provenance of quantum-like behavior in complex systems whose internal structure is essentially hidden or inaccessible. The approach is via the logic obeyed by these systems which is similar to, but not identical with, the logic obeyed by actual quantum systems. The results reveal certain effects in such systems which, though quantum-like, are not identical to the kinds of quantum effects found in physics. These effects increase with the size of the system.     

Combined use of COSY and double quantum two-dimensional NMR spectroscopy for elucidation of spin systems in polymyxin B

Two-dimensional single quantum correlation NMR spectroscopy (COSY) and two-dimensional double quantum NMR spectroscopy (2QT) are used to study spin systems in the 1H NMR spectrum of polymyxin B. Because of different frequency relationships, the two types of two-dimensional NMR experiments are found to be highly complementary. This is demonstrated by combined use of COSY and 2QT spectroscopy to obtain a complete analysis of the complicated spectral overlap which occurs in the 1H NMR spectrum of polymyxin B.     

Analysis of questions asked by family physicians regarding patient care

Objectives To characterize the information needs of family physicians by collecting the questions they asked about patient care during consultations and to classify these in ways that would be useful to developers of knowledge bases. Design An observational study in which investigators visited physicians for two half-days and collected their questions. Taxonomies were developed to characterize the clinical topic and generic type of information sought for each question. Setting Eastern Iowa. Participants Random sample of 103 family physicians. Main outcome measures Number of questions posed, pursued, and answered; topic and generic type of information sought for each question; time spent pursuing answers; and information resources used. Results Participants asked a total of 1,101 questions. Questions about drug prescribing, obstetrics and gynecology, and adult infectious disease were most common, comprising 36% of the total. The taxonomy of generic questions included 69 categories; the three most common types, comprising 24% of all questions, were "What is the cause of symptom X?" "What is the dose of drug X?" and "How should I manage disease or finding X?" Answers to most questions (n = 702 [64%]) were not immediately pursued, but of those pursued, most (n = 318 [80%]) were answered. Physicians spent an average of less than 2 minutes pursuing an answer, and they used readily available print and human resources. Only two questions led to a formal literature search. Conclusions Family physicians in this study did not pursue answers to most of their questions. Questions about patient care can be organized into a limited number of generic types, which could help guide the efforts of knowledge-base developers.     

Role of social cognition in post‐traumatic stress disorder: A review and meta‐analysis

Social functioning is a key component of recovery after a potentially traumatic experience, and the buffering role of the social support in trauma resilience and recovery has been very well documented. Factors contributing to resilience and recovery are notable because although most people will experience a traumatic event during their lifetimes, only 6% to 10% are diagnosed with post‐traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The relationship between an individual and their social environment is determined both by the quality of the social environment itself, and by the individual's perception and understanding of information conveyed by the other people around them. However, little research has considered the contribution of these internal social cognitive processes to PTSD risk or resilience. The current review draws on the existing literature on social cognitive functioning in trauma exposure and PTSD, identifying key questions and themes for future research. We utilized a meta‐analytic approach to assess the evidence for alterations in social cognition in PTSD, finding a consistent large deficit in social cognitive performance in PTSD groups relative to trauma‐exposed and healthy controls. We then reviewed the literature on the interaction of genes and the social environment, supporting the hypothesis that social cognitive deficits are a preexisting risk factor for PTSD. Finally, we reviewed relevant neuroimaging findings, which suggest that alterations in social cognition affect the perception of threat cues in PTSD. Overall, research on social cognition and PTSD is still emerging, but existing findings suggest this is an important and understudied area for the understanding of PTSD.