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Reid CR. Thoughts from the forest floor: a review of cognition in the slime mould Physarum polycephalum. Anim Cogn 2023; 26:1783-1797. [PMID: 37166523 PMCID: PMC10770251 DOI: 10.1007/s10071-023-01782-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/08/2023] [Revised: 04/27/2023] [Accepted: 04/28/2023] [Indexed: 05/12/2023]
Abstract
Sensing, communication, navigation, decision-making, memory and learning are key components in a standard cognitive tool-kit that enhance an animal's ability to successfully survive and reproduce. However, these tools are not only useful for, or accessible to, animals-they evolved long ago in simpler organisms using mechanisms which may be either unique or widely conserved across diverse taxa. In this article, I review the recent research that demonstrates these key cognitive abilities in the plasmodial slime mould Physarum polycephalum, which has emerged as a model for non-animal cognition. I discuss the benefits and limitations of comparisons drawn between neural and non-neural systems, and the implications of common mechanisms across wide taxonomic divisions. I conclude by discussing future avenues of research that will draw the most benefit from a closer integration of Physarum and animal cognition research.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chris R Reid
- School of Natural Sciences, Macquarie University, North Ryde, NSW, 2109, Australia.
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2
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Heyman GM. Overconsumption as a function of how individuals make choices: A paper in honor of Howard Rachlin's contributions to psychology. J Exp Anal Behav 2023; 119:91-103. [PMID: 36518022 DOI: 10.1002/jeab.821] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/17/2022] [Revised: 11/30/2022] [Accepted: 12/02/2022] [Indexed: 12/23/2022]
Abstract
Howard Rachlin's widely influential behavioral economic approach to self-control and related issues provides the model for this submission. The topic is overconsumption. Current human consumption levels are unsustainable. Explanations typically focus on societal factors, such as the seductive power of advertising and/or misguided tax policies. However, the effectiveness of these factors depends on the degree to which individuals are susceptible to the message: "consume more." Humans are not blank slates. This paper argues that how individuals frame their choices establishes the susceptibility to overconsume. According to economic theory, consumers frame their options as bundles, composed of different combinations of the available items and activities. This leads to maximizing. In experiments, participants tend to frame their options as "either-or" choices. This leads to the matching law. Mathematical models of concurrent schedule choice procedures show that (1) the matching law implies overconsumption of the most preferred option and (2) that individuals will persist in preferring their favorite option even when doing so reduces overall reward rates. Given that the matching law better describes how individuals choose than does maximizing, the mathematical models of widely used choice procedures help explain why efforts to increase consumption have been more influential than efforts to control consumption.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gene M Heyman
- Department of Psychology & Neuroscience, Boston College
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3
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Houston AI, Trimmer PC, McNamara JM. Matching Behaviours and Rewards. Trends Cogn Sci 2021; 25:403-415. [PMID: 33612384 DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2021.01.011] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/06/2020] [Revised: 01/19/2021] [Accepted: 01/21/2021] [Indexed: 10/22/2022]
Abstract
Matching describes how behaviour is related to rewards. The matching law holds when the ratio of an individual's behaviours equals the ratio of the rewards obtained. From its origins in the study of pigeons working for food in the laboratory, the law has been applied to a range of species, both in the laboratory and outside it (e.g., human sporting decisions). Probability matching occurs when the probability of a behaviour equals the probability of being rewarded. Input matching predicts the distribution of individuals across habitats. We evaluate the rationality of the matching law and probability matching, expose the logic of matching in real-world cases, review how recent neuroscience findings relate to matching, and suggest future research directions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alasdair I Houston
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Life Sciences Building, 24 Tyndall Avenue, Bristol, BS8 1TQ, UK.
| | - Pete C Trimmer
- Department of Psychology, University of Warwick, Coventry, CV4 7AL, UK
| | - John M McNamara
- School of Mathematics, University of Bristol, Fry Building, Woodland Road, Bristol, BS8 1UG, UK
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4
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Stanton LA, Bridge ES, Huizinga J, Johnson SR, Young JK, Benson-Amram S. Variation in reversal learning by three generalist mesocarnivores. Anim Cogn 2020; 24:555-568. [PMID: 33231749 DOI: 10.1007/s10071-020-01438-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/02/2020] [Revised: 09/25/2020] [Accepted: 09/29/2020] [Indexed: 01/04/2023]
Abstract
Urbanization imposes novel challenges for wildlife, but also provides new opportunities for exploitation. Generalist species are commonly found in urban habitats, but the cognitive mechanisms facilitating their successful behavioral adaptations and exploitations are largely under-investigated. Cognitive flexibility is thought to enable generalists to be more plastic in their behavior, thereby increasing their adaptability to a variety of environments, including urban habitats. Yet direct measures of cognitive flexibility across urban wildlife are lacking. We used a classic reversal-learning paradigm to investigate the cognitive flexibility of three generalist mesocarnivores commonly found in urban habitats: striped skunks (Mephitis mephitis), raccoons (Procyon lotor), and coyotes (Canis latrans). We developed an automated device and testing protocol that allowed us to administer tests of reversal learning in captivity without extensive training or experimenter involvement. Although most subjects were able to rapidly form and reverse learned associations, we found moderate variation in performance and behavior during trials. Most notably, we observed heightened neophobia and a lack of habituation expressed by coyotes. We discuss the implications of such differences among generalists with regard to urban adaptation and we identify goals for future research. This study is an important step in investigating the relationships between cognition, generalism, and urban adaptation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lauren A Stanton
- Department of Zoology and Physiology, University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY, USA.
- Program in Ecology, University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY, USA.
| | - Eli S Bridge
- Oklahoma Biological Survey, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, USA
| | | | - Shylo R Johnson
- USDA/APHIS/WS National Wildlife Research Center, Fort Collins, CO, USA
| | - Julie K Young
- USDA/APHIS/WS National Wildlife Research Center - Predator Research Facility, Millville, UT, USA
| | - Sarah Benson-Amram
- Department of Zoology and Physiology, University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY, USA
- Program in Ecology, University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY, USA
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Heyman GM. How individuals make choices explains addiction's distinctive, non-eliminable features. Behav Brain Res 2020; 397:112899. [PMID: 32926908 DOI: 10.1016/j.bbr.2020.112899] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/02/2020] [Revised: 08/14/2020] [Accepted: 09/03/2020] [Indexed: 11/24/2022]
Abstract
In keeping with the goals of this Special Issue, this paper poses the following questions: What are addiction's non-eliminable features and can they be explained by one or more general principles? I have added the qualifier "distinctive" to these goals, as in "distinctive non-eliminable features." The result is a highly heterogeneous list, which includes features of addiction's natural history, such as its high remission rates, its unique idioms (e.g., "kicking the habit"), and its patented interventions, such as Alcoholics Anonymous. I show that each of these distinctive features reflects how individuals make choices. In particular, they reflect the competing claims of two basic choice processes: global maximizing of the sort assumed in introductory economics textbooks and Herrnstein's matching law, which has empirical rather than theoretical roots. These are basic choice processes, which apply to all decision making, not just drugs and not just addicts. Nevertheless, they can result in addiction when one of the options has the capacity to undermine the value of competing interests and undermine global maximizing. Conversely, the analyses also show that the two basic choice processes combine so as to predict that addiction is a semi-stable state that is biased to resolve in favor of remission. These predictions are supported by the high rates of addiction, by the high rates of remission from addiction, and by the fact that remission is often unassisted or "spontaneous." The analyses fail to support the idea that pathological psychological processes lead to addiction. Rather they show that addiction emerges from the interactions of normal choice processes and the behaviorally toxic effects of drugs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gene M Heyman
- Department of Psychology & Neuroscience, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA 02467, United States.
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Abstract
This paper aimed to explore and clarify the concept of behavioral flexibility. A selective literature review explored how the concept of behavioral flexibility has been used in ways that range from acknowledging the fact that animals’ behavior is not always bounded by instinctual constraints, to describing the variation between species in their capacity for innovative foraging, a capacity that has repeatedly been linked to having a brain larger than would be predicted from body size. This wide range of usages of a single term has led to some conceptual confusion. We sought to find a more precise meaning for behavioral flexibility by representing it within a simple formal model of problem solving. The key to our model is to distinguish between an animal’s state of knowledge about the world and its observable behavior, using a construct of response strength to represent that underlying knowledge. We modelled behavioral flexibility as a parameter in the function that transforms response strengths into observable response probabilities. We tested this model in simulations based on some recent experimental work on animal problem solving. Initial results showed that parametric manipulation can mimic some of the behavioral effects that have been attributed to flexibility.
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A Computational Model of Dual Competition between the Basal Ganglia and the Cortex. eNeuro 2019; 5:eN-TNC-0339-17. [PMID: 30627653 PMCID: PMC6325557 DOI: 10.1523/eneuro.0339-17.2018] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/03/2017] [Revised: 11/15/2018] [Accepted: 11/16/2018] [Indexed: 01/16/2023] Open
Abstract
We propose a model that includes interactions between the cortex, the basal ganglia (BG), and the thalamus based on a dual competition. We hypothesize that the striatum, the subthalamic nucleus (STN), the internal globus pallidus (GPi), the thalamus, and the cortex are involved in closed feedback loops through the hyperdirect and direct pathways. These loops support a competition process that results in the ability of BG to make a cognitive decision followed by a motor one. Considering lateral cortical interactions, another competition takes place inside the cortex allowing the latter to make a cognitive and a motor decision. We show how this dual competition endows the model with two regimes. One is driven by reinforcement learning and the other by Hebbian learning. The final decision is made according to a combination of these two mechanisms with a gradual transfer from the former to the latter. We confirmed these theoretical results on primates (Macaca mulatta) using a novel paradigm predicted by the model.
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Boraud T, Leblois A, Rougier NP. A natural history of skills. Prog Neurobiol 2018; 171:114-124. [PMID: 30171867 DOI: 10.1016/j.pneurobio.2018.08.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/25/2018] [Revised: 07/19/2018] [Accepted: 08/21/2018] [Indexed: 10/28/2022]
Abstract
The dorsal pallium (a.k.a. cortex in mammals) makes a loop circuit with the basal ganglia and the thalamus known to control and adapt behavior but the who's who of the functional roles of these structures is still debated. Influenced by the Triune brain theory that was proposed in the early sixties, many current theories propose a hierarchical organization on the top of which stands the cortex to which the subcortical structures are subordinated. In particular, habits formation has been proposed to reflect a switch from conscious on-line control of behavior by the cortex, to a fully automated subcortical control. In this review, we propose to revalue the function of the network in light of the current experimental evidence concerning the anatomy and physiology of the basal ganglia-cortical circuits in vertebrates. We briefly review the current theories and show that they could be encompassed in a broader framework of skill learning and performance. Then, after reminding the state of the art concerning the anatomical architecture of the network and the underlying dynamic processes, we summarize the evolution of the anatomical and physiological substrate of skill learning and performance among vertebrates. We then review experimental evidence supporting for the hypothesis that the development of automatized skills relies on the BG teaching cortical circuits and is actually a late feature linked with the development of a specialized cortex or pallium that evolved in parallel in different taxa. We finally propose a minimal computational framework where this hypothesis can be explicitly implemented and tested.
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Affiliation(s)
- Thomas Boraud
- CNRS, UMR 5293, IMN, 33000 Bordeaux, France; University of Bordeaux, UMR 5293, IMN, 33000 Bordeaux, France; CNRS, French-Israeli Neuroscience Lab, 33000 Bordeaux, France; CHU de Bordeaux, IMN Clinique, 33000 Bordeaux, France.
| | - Arthur Leblois
- CNRS, UMR 5293, IMN, 33000 Bordeaux, France; University of Bordeaux, UMR 5293, IMN, 33000 Bordeaux, France; CNRS, French-Israeli Neuroscience Lab, 33000 Bordeaux, France
| | - Nicolas P Rougier
- University of Bordeaux, UMR 5293, IMN, 33000 Bordeaux, France; INRIA Bordeaux Sud-Ouest, 33405 Talence, France; LaBRI, University of Bordeaux, IPB, CNRS, UMR 5800, 33405 Talence, France
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Piron C, Kase D, Topalidou M, Goillandeau M, Orignac H, N'Guyen TH, Rougier N, Boraud T. The globus pallidus pars interna in goal-oriented and routine behaviors: Resolving a long-standing paradox. Mov Disord 2016; 31:1146-54. [PMID: 26900137 DOI: 10.1002/mds.26542] [Citation(s) in RCA: 31] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/22/2015] [Revised: 12/18/2015] [Accepted: 12/23/2015] [Indexed: 01/10/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND There is an apparent contradiction between experimental data showing that the basal ganglia are involved in goal-oriented and routine behaviors and clinical observations. Lesion or disruption by deep brain stimulation of the globus pallidus interna has been used for various therapeutic purposes ranging from the improvement of dystonia to the treatment of Tourette's syndrome. None of these approaches has reported any severe impairment in goal-oriented or automatic movement. METHOD To solve this conundrum, we trained 2 monkeys to perform a variant of a 2-armed bandit-task (with different reward contingencies). In the latter we alternated blocks of trials with choices between familiar rewarded targets that elicit routine behavior and blocks with novel pairs of targets that require an intentional learning process. RESULTS Bilateral inactivation of the globus pallidus interna, by injection of muscimol, prevents animals from learning new contingencies while performance remains intact, although slower for the familiar stimuli. We replicate in silico these data by adding lateral competition and Hebbian learning in the cortical layer of the theoretical model of the cortex-basal ganglia loop that provided the framework of our experimental approach. CONCLUSION The basal ganglia play a critical role in the deliberative process that underlies learning but are not necessary for the expression of routine movements. Our approach predicts that after pallidotomy or during stimulation, patients should have difficulty with complex decision-making processes or learning new goal-oriented behaviors. © 2016 Movement Disorder Society.
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Affiliation(s)
- Camille Piron
- University of Bordeaux, UMR 5293, IMN, Bordeaux, France.,CNRS, UMR 5293, IMN, Bordeaux, France.,CNRS, French-Israeli Neuroscience Lab, Bordeaux, France
| | - Daisuke Kase
- University of Bordeaux, UMR 5293, IMN, Bordeaux, France.,CNRS, UMR 5293, IMN, Bordeaux, France.,CNRS, French-Israeli Neuroscience Lab, Bordeaux, France
| | - Meropi Topalidou
- University of Bordeaux, UMR 5293, IMN, Bordeaux, France.,CNRS, UMR 5293, IMN, Bordeaux, France.,INRIA, Bordeaux Sud-Ouest, Talence, France.,University of Bordeaux, UMR 5800, LABRI, IPB, Talence, France.,CNRS, UMR 5800, LABRI, IPB, Talence, France
| | - Michel Goillandeau
- University of Bordeaux, UMR 5293, IMN, Bordeaux, France.,CNRS, UMR 5293, IMN, Bordeaux, France
| | - Hugues Orignac
- University of Bordeaux, UMR 5293, IMN, Bordeaux, France.,CNRS, UMR 5293, IMN, Bordeaux, France
| | - Tho-Haï N'Guyen
- University of Bordeaux, UMR 5293, IMN, Bordeaux, France.,CNRS, UMR 5293, IMN, Bordeaux, France
| | - Nicolas Rougier
- University of Bordeaux, UMR 5293, IMN, Bordeaux, France.,CNRS, UMR 5293, IMN, Bordeaux, France.,INRIA, Bordeaux Sud-Ouest, Talence, France.,University of Bordeaux, UMR 5800, LABRI, IPB, Talence, France.,CNRS, UMR 5800, LABRI, IPB, Talence, France
| | - Thomas Boraud
- University of Bordeaux, UMR 5293, IMN, Bordeaux, France.,CNRS, UMR 5293, IMN, Bordeaux, France.,CNRS, French-Israeli Neuroscience Lab, Bordeaux, France.,CHU de Bordeaux, IMN Clinique, Bordeaux, France
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Gilbert-Norton LB, Wilson RR, Shivik JA. The Effect of Social Hierarchy on Captive Coyote ( Canis latrans) Foraging Behavior. Ethology 2013. [DOI: 10.1111/eth.12070] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/01/2022]
Affiliation(s)
| | | | - John A. Shivik
- USDA Wildlife Service's National Wildlife Research Center; Utah State University; Logan; UT; USA
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Tracking of food quantity by coyotes (Canis latrans). Behav Processes 2011; 88:72-5. [PMID: 21856389 DOI: 10.1016/j.beproc.2011.08.006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 53] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/04/2010] [Revised: 06/25/2011] [Accepted: 08/01/2011] [Indexed: 11/21/2022]
Abstract
Previous studies have demonstrated that Weber's Law mediates quantitative discrimination abilities across various species. Here, we tested coyotes' (Canis latrans) ability to discriminate between various quantities of food and investigated whether this ability conforms to predictions of Weber's Law. We demonstrate herein that coyotes are capable of reliably discriminating large versus small quantities of discrete food items. As predicted by Weber's Law, coyotes' quantitative discrimination abilities are mediated by the ratio between the large and small quantities of food and exhibit scalar variability. Furthermore, in this task coyotes were not discriminating large versus small quantities based on olfactory cues alone.
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