1
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Tonna M. The Evolution of Symbolic Thought: At the Intersection of Schizophrenia Psychopathology, Ethnoarchaeology, and Neuroscience. Cult Med Psychiatry 2024:10.1007/s11013-024-09873-5. [PMID: 38995487 DOI: 10.1007/s11013-024-09873-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 06/29/2024] [Indexed: 07/13/2024]
Abstract
The human capacity for symbolic representation arises, evolutionarily and developmentally, from the exploitation of a widespread sensorimotor network, along a fundamental continuity between embodied and symbolic modes of experience. In this regard, the fine balancing between constrained sensorimotor connections (responsible for self-embodiment processing) and more untethered neural associations (responsible for abstract and symbolic processing) is context dependent and plastically neuromodulated, thus intersubjectively constructed within a specific socio-cultural milieu. Instead, in the schizophrenia spectrum this system falls off catastrophically, due to an unbalance toward too unconstrained sensorimotor connectivity, leading to a profound distortion of self/world relation with a symbolic activity detached from its embodied ground. For this very reason, however, schizophrenia psychopathology may contribute to unveil, in a distorted or magnified way, ubiquitous structural features of human symbolic activity, beneath the various, historically determined cultural systems. In this respect, a comparative approach, linking psychopathology and ethnoarchaeology, allows highlight the following invariant formal characteristics of symbolic processing: (1) Emergence of salient perceptive fragments, which stand out from the perceptual field. (2) Spreading of a multiplicity of new significances with suspension of common-sense meaning. (3) Dynamic and passive character through which meaning proliferation is experienced. This study emphasizes the importance of fine-grained psychopathology to elucidate, within a cross-disciplinary framework, the evolutionarily and developmental pathways that shape the basic structures of human symbolization.
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Affiliation(s)
- Matteo Tonna
- Department of Medicine and Surgery, Psychiatric Unit, University of Parma, Ospedale Maggiore, Padiglione Braga, Viale A. Gramsci 14, 43126, Parma, Italy.
- Department of Mental Health, Local Health Service, Parma, Italy.
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2
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Driscoll C. Can human nature be saved? STUDIES IN HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE 2024; 103:39-45. [PMID: 38039603 DOI: 10.1016/j.shpsa.2023.11.005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/30/2023] [Revised: 11/13/2023] [Accepted: 11/20/2023] [Indexed: 12/03/2023]
Abstract
This paper argues that the best interpretation of the human nature concept used in evolutionary social science (ESS) is as the human adaptive complex. This understanding of the concept enables us to make sense of the features of human nature that are described in that literature as symptomatic of traits which are part of human nature, rather than being constitutive of human nature itself. This enables this proposal to make better sense of how the human nature concept is used than other current proposals for how to understand that concept.
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Affiliation(s)
- Catherine Driscoll
- Dept. of Philosophy and Religious Studies, North Carolina State University, USA.
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3
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Tonna M, Lucarini V, Borrelli DF, Parmigiani S, Marchesi C. Disembodiment and Language in Schizophrenia: An Integrated Psychopathological and Evolutionary Perspective. Schizophr Bull 2023; 49:161-171. [PMID: 36264669 PMCID: PMC9810023 DOI: 10.1093/schbul/sbac146] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/07/2023]
Abstract
Different hypotheses have flourished to explain the evolutionary paradox of schizophrenia. In this contribution, we sought to illustrate how, in the schizophrenia spectrum, the concept of embodiment may underpin the phylogenetic and developmental pathways linking sensorimotor processes, the origin of human language, and the construction of a basic sense of the self. In particular, according to an embodied model of language, we suggest that the reuse of basic sensorimotor loops for language, while enabling the development of fully symbolic thought, has pushed the human brain close to the threshold of a severe disruption of self-embodiment processes, which are at the core of schizophrenia psychopathology. We adopted an inter-disciplinary approach (psychopathology, neuroscience, developmental biology) within an evolutionary framework, to gain an integrated, multi-perspectival model on the origin of schizophrenia vulnerability. A maladaptive over-expression of evolutionary-developmental trajectories toward language at the expense of embodiment processes would have led to the evolutionary "trade-off" of a hyper-symbolic activity to the detriment of a disembodied self. Therefore, schizophrenia psychopathology might be the cost of long-term co-evolutive interactions between brain and language.
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Affiliation(s)
- Matteo Tonna
- Department of Medicine and Surgery, Psychiatric Unit, University of Parma, Parma, Italy
- Department of Mental Health, Local Health Service, Parma, Italy
| | - Valeria Lucarini
- Université Paris Cité, Institute of Psychiatry and Neuroscience of Paris (IPNP), INSERM U1266, Paris, France
| | | | - Stefano Parmigiani
- Department of Department of Chemistry, Life Sciences and Environmental Sustainability, Unit of Behavioral Biology, University of Parma, Parma, Italy
| | - Carlo Marchesi
- Department of Medicine and Surgery, Psychiatric Unit, University of Parma, Parma, Italy
- Department of Mental Health, Local Health Service, Parma, Italy
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4
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Abstract
An important question in the study of canine cognition is how dogs understand humans, given that they show impressive abilities for interacting and communicating with us. In this review, we describe and discuss studies that have investigated dogs' perspective-taking abilities. There is solid evidence that dogs are not only sensitive to the gaze of others, but also their attention. We specifically address the question whether dogs have the ability to take the perspective of others and thus come to understand what others can or cannot perceive. From the latter, they may then infer what others know and use this representation to anticipate what others do next. Still, dogs might simply rely on directly observable cues and on what they themselves can perceive when they assess what others can perceive. And instead of making inferences from representations of others' mental states, they may have just learned that certain behaviours of ours lead to certain outcomes. However, recent research seems to challenge this low-level explanation. Dogs have solved several perspective-taking tasks instantly and reliably across a large number of variations, including geometrical gaze-following, stealing in the dark, concealing information from others, and Guesser/Knower differentiation. In the latter studies, dogs' choices between two human informants were strongly influenced by cues related to the humans' visual access to the food, even when the two informants behaved identically. And finally, we review a recent study that found dogs reacting differently to misleading suggestions of human informants that have either a true or false belief about the location of food. We discuss this surprising result in terms of the comprehension of reality-incongruent mental states, which is considered as a hallmark of Theory of Mind acquisition in human development. Especially on the basis of the latter findings, we conclude that pet dogs might be sensitive to what others see, know, intend, and believe. Therefore, this ability seems to have evolved not just in the corvid and primate lineages, but also in dogs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ludwig Huber
- Comparative Cognition, Messerli Research Institute, University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna, Medical University of Vienna, University of Vienna, Veterinaerplatz 1, 1210, Vienna, Austria.
| | - Lucrezia Lonardo
- Comparative Cognition, Messerli Research Institute, University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna, Medical University of Vienna, University of Vienna, Veterinaerplatz 1, 1210, Vienna, Austria
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5
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Abstract
Creativity generates novel solutions to tasks by processing information. Imagination and mental representations are part of the creative process; we can mull over ideas of our own making, and construct algorithms or scenarios from them. Social scenario-building can be viewed as a human cognitive "super-power" that involves abstraction, meta-representation, time-travel, and directed imaginative thought. We humans have a "theater in our minds" to play out a near-infinite array of social strategies and contingencies. Here we propose an integrative model for why and how humans evolved extraordinary creative abilities. We posit that a key aspect of hominin evolution involved relatively open and fluid social relationships among communities, enabled by a unique extended family structure similar to that of contemporary hunter-gatherer band societies. Intercommunity relationships facilitated the rapid flow of information-"Culture"-that underpinned arms-races in information processing, language, imagination, and creativity that distinguishes humans from other species.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mark V. Flinn
- Department of Anthropology, Baylor University, Waco, TX, United States
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6
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Buckley MG, Austen JM, Myles LAM, Smith S, Ihssen N, Lew AR, McGregor A. The effects of spatial stability and cue type on spatial learning: Implications for theories of parallel memory systems. Cognition 2021; 214:104802. [PMID: 34225248 DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2021.104802] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/01/2020] [Revised: 05/25/2021] [Accepted: 06/03/2021] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
Some theories of spatial learning predict that associative rules apply under only limited circumstances. For example, learning based on a boundary has been claimed to be immune to cue competition effects because boundary information is the basis for the formation of a cognitive map, whilst landmark learning does not involve cognitive mapping. This is referred to as the cue type hypothesis. However, it has also been claimed that cue stability is a prerequisite for the formation of a cognitive map, meaning that whichever cue type was perceived as stable would enter a cognitive map and thus be immune to cue competition, while unstable cues will be subject to cue competition, regardless of cue type. In experiments 1 and 2 we manipulated the stability of boundary and landmark cues when learning the location of two hidden goals. One goal location was constant with respect to the boundary, and the other constant with respect to the landmark cues. For both cue types, the presence of distal orientation cues provided directional information. For half the participants the landmark cues were unstable relative to the boundary and orientation cues, whereas for the remainder of the participants the boundary was unstable relative to landmarks and orientation cues. In a second stage of training, all cues remained stable so that both goal locations could be learned with respect to both landmark and boundary information. According to the cue type hypothesis, boundary information should block learning about landmarks regardless of cue stability. According to the cue stability hypothesis, however, landmarks should block learning about the boundary when the landmarks appear stable relative to the boundary. Regardless of cue type or stability the results showed reciprocal blocking, contrary to both formulations of incidental cognitive mapping. Experiment 3 established that the results of Experiments 1 and 2 could not be explained in terms of difficulty in learning certain locations with respect to different cue types. In a final experiment, following training in which both landmarks and boundary cues signalled two goal locations, a new goal location was established with respect to the landmark cues, before testing with the boundary, which had never been used to define the new goal location. The results of this novel test of the interaction between boundary and landmark cues indicated that new learning with respect to the landmark had a profound effect on navigation with respect to the boundary, counter to the predictions of incidental cognitive mapping of boundaries.
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Affiliation(s)
- Matthew G Buckley
- Department of Psychology, Durham University, UK; School of Psychology, Aston University, UK.
| | | | | | - Shamus Smith
- School of Electrical Engineering and Computing, University of Newcastle, Australia
| | | | - Adina R Lew
- Department of Psychology, Lancaster University, UK
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7
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Theory of mind development in impoverished U.S. children and six cross-cultural comparisons. JOURNAL OF APPLIED DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY 2021. [DOI: 10.1016/j.appdev.2021.101314] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/09/2023]
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8
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Benz-Schwarzburg J, Monsó S, Huber L. How Dogs Perceive Humans and How Humans Should Treat Their Pet Dogs: Linking Cognition With Ethics. Front Psychol 2021; 11:584037. [PMID: 33391102 PMCID: PMC7772310 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.584037] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/16/2020] [Accepted: 11/24/2020] [Indexed: 01/27/2023] Open
Abstract
Humans interact with animals in numerous ways and on numerous levels. We are indeed living in an “animal”s world,’ in the sense that our lives are very much intertwined with the lives of animals. This also means that animals, like those dogs we commonly refer to as our pets, are living in a “human’s world” in the sense that it is us, not them, who, to a large degree, define and manage the interactions we have with them. In this sense, the human-animal relationship is nothing we should romanticize: it comes with clear power relations and thus with a set of responsibilities on the side of those who exercise this power. This holds, despite the fact that we like to think about our dogs as human’s best friend. Dogs have been part of human societies for longer than any other domestic species. Like no other species they exemplify the role of companion animals. Relationships with pet dogs are both very widespread and very intense, often leading to strong attachments between owners or caregivers and animals and to a treatment of these dogs as family members or even children. But how does this relationship look from the dogs’ perspective? How do they perceive the humans they engage with? What responsibilities and duties arise from the kind of mutual understanding, attachment, and the supposedly “special” bonds we form with them? Are there ethical implications, maybe even ethical implications beyond animal welfare? The past decades have seen an upsurge of research from comparative cognition on pet dogs’ cognitive and social skills, especially in comparison with and reference to humans. We will therefore set our discussion about the nature and ethical dimensions of the human–dog relationship against the background of the current empirical knowledge on dog (social) cognition. This allows us to analyze the human–dog relationship by applying an interdisciplinary approach that starts from the perspective of the dog to ultimately inform the perspective of humans. It is our aim to thereby identify ethical dimensions of the human–dog relationship that have been overlooked so far.
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Affiliation(s)
- Judith Benz-Schwarzburg
- Unit of Ethics and Human-Animal Studies, Messerli Research Institute, Vetmeduni Vienna, University of Vienna, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
| | - Susana Monsó
- Unit of Ethics and Human-Animal Studies, Messerli Research Institute, Vetmeduni Vienna, University of Vienna, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
| | - Ludwig Huber
- Unit of Comparative Cognition, Messerli Research Institute, Vetmeduni Vienna, University of Vienna, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
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9
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Heyes C, Chater N, Dwyer DM. Sinking In: The Peripheral Baldwinisation of Human Cognition. Trends Cogn Sci 2020; 24:884-899. [PMID: 32981845 DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2020.08.006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/15/2020] [Revised: 08/13/2020] [Accepted: 08/27/2020] [Indexed: 01/25/2023]
Abstract
The Baldwin effect is a hypothetical process in which a learned response to environmental change evolves a genetic basis. Modelling has shown that the Baldwin effect offers a plausible and elegant explanation for the emergence of complex behavioural traits, but there is little direct empirical evidence for its occurrence. We highlight experimental evidence of the Baldwin effect and argue that it acts preferentially on peripheral rather than on central cognitive processes. Careful scrutiny of research on taste-aversion and fear learning, language, and imitation indicates that their efficiency depends on adaptively specialised input and output processes: analogues of scanner and printer interfaces that feed information to core inference processes and structure their behavioural expression.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cecilia Heyes
- All Souls College and Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 4AL, UK.
| | - Nick Chater
- Warwick Business School, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, UK
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10
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Tonna M, Ponzi D, Palanza P, Marchesi C, Parmigiani S. Proximate and ultimate causes of ritual behavior. Behav Brain Res 2020; 393:112772. [PMID: 32544508 DOI: 10.1016/j.bbr.2020.112772] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/10/2020] [Revised: 05/23/2020] [Accepted: 06/08/2020] [Indexed: 01/24/2023]
Abstract
Ritual behaviour, intended as a specific, repetitive and rigid form of action flow, appears both in social and non-social environmental contexts, representing an ubiquitous phenomenon in animal life including human individuals and cultures. The purpose of this contribution is to investigate an evolutionary continuum in proximate and ultimate causes of ritual behavior. A phylogenetic homology in proximal mechanisms can be found, based on the repetition of genetically programmed and/or epigenetically acquired action patterns of behavior. As far as its adaptive significance, ethological comparative studies show that the tendency to ritualization is driven by the unpredictability of social or ecological environmental stimuli. In this perspective, rituals may have a "homeostatic" function over unpredictable environments, as further highlighted by psychopathological compulsions. In humans, a circular loop may have occurred among ritual practices and symbolic activity to deal with a novel culturally-mediated world. However, we suggest that the compulsion to action patterns repetition, typical of all rituals, has a genetically inborn motor foundation, thus precognitive and pre-symbolic. Rooted in such phylogenetically conserved motor structure (proximate causes), the evolution of cognitive and symbolic capacities have generated the complexity of human rituals, though maintaining the original adaptive function (ultimate causes) to cope with unpredictable environments.
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Affiliation(s)
- Matteo Tonna
- Department of Mental Health, Local Health Service, Parma, Italy.
| | - Davide Ponzi
- Department of Medicine and Surgery, Neuroscience Unit, University of Parma, Italy
| | - Paola Palanza
- Department of Medicine and Surgery, Neuroscience Unit, University of Parma, Italy
| | - Carlo Marchesi
- Department of Medicine and Surgery, Neuroscience Unit, University of Parma, Italy
| | - Stefano Parmigiani
- Department of Chemistry, Life Sciences and Environmental Sustainaibility, Unit of Behavioral Biology, University of Parma, Italy
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11
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The Lens Shapes the View: on Task Dependency in ToM Research. Curr Behav Neurosci Rep 2020. [DOI: 10.1007/s40473-020-00205-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/24/2022]
Abstract
Abstract
Purpose of Review
This article provides an overview of current findings on Theory of Mind (ToM) in human children and adults and highlights the relationship between task specifications and their outcome in socio-cognitive research.
Recent Findings
ToM, the capacity to reason about and infer others’ mental states, develops progressively throughout childhood—the exact time course is still a matter of debate. Neuroimaging studies indicate the involvement of a widespread neuronal network during mentalizing, suggesting that ToM is a multifaceted process. Accordingly, the tasks and trainings that currently exist to investigate and enhance ToM are heterogeneous, and the outcomes largely depend on the paradigm that was used.
Summary
We argue for the implementation of multiple-task batteries in the assessment of socio-cognitive abilities. Decisions for a particular paradigm need to be carefully considered and justified. We want to emphasize the importance of targeted research on the relationship between task specifications and outcomes.
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12
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Abstract
Culture suffuses all aspects of human life. It shapes our minds and bodies and has provided a cumulative inheritance of knowledge, skills, institutions, and artifacts that allows us to truly stand on the shoulders of giants. No other species approaches the extent, diversity, and complexity of human culture, but we remain unsure how this came to be. The very uniqueness of human culture is both a puzzle and a problem. It is puzzling as to why more species have not adopted this manifestly beneficial strategy and problematic because the comparative methods of evolutionary biology are ill suited to explain unique events. Here, we develop a more particularistic and mechanistic evolutionary neuroscience approach to cumulative culture, taking into account experimental, developmental, comparative, and archaeological evidence. This approach reconciles currently competing accounts of the origins of human culture and develops the concept of a uniquely human technological niche rooted in a shared primate heritage of visuomotor coordination and dexterous manipulation.
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13
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Abstract
The theory of natural pedagogy is an important focus of research on the evolution and development of cultural learning. It proposes that we are born pupils; that human children genetically inherit a package of psychological adaptations that make them receptive to teaching. In this article, I first examine the components of the package-eye contact, contingencies, infant-directed speech, gaze cuing, and rational imitation-asking in each case whether current evidence indicates that the component is a reliable feature of infant behavior and a genetic adaptation for teaching. I then discuss three fundamental insights embodied in the theory: Imitation is not enough for cumulative cultural inheritance, the extra comes from blind trust, and tweaking is a powerful source of cognitive change. Combining the results of the empirical review with these insights, I argue that human receptivity to teaching is founded on nonspecific genetic adaptations for social bonding and social learning and acquires its species- and functionally specific features through the operation of domain-general processes of learning in sociocultural contexts. We engage, not in natural pedagogy, but in cultural pedagogy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cecilia Heyes
- All Souls College and Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford
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14
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Abstract
Social learning, learning from others, is a powerful process known to impact the success and survival of humans and non-human animals alike. Yet we understand little about the neurocognitive and other processes that underpin social learning. Social learning has often been assumed to involve specialized, derived cognitive processes that evolve and develop independently from other processes. However, this assumption is increasingly questioned, and evidence from a variety of organisms demonstrates that current, recent, and early life experience all predict the reliance on social information and thus can potentially explain variation in social learning as a result of experiential effects rather than evolved differences. General associative learning processes, rather than adaptive specializations, may underpin much social learning, as well as social learning strategies. Uncovering these distinctions is important to a variety of fields, for example by widening current views of the possible breadth and adaptive flexibility of social learning. Nonetheless, just like adaptationist evolutionary explanations, associationist explanations for social learning cannot be assumed, and empirical work is required to uncover the mechanisms involved and their impact on the efficacy of social learning. This work is being done, but more is needed. Current evidence suggests that much social learning may be based on ‘ordinary’ processes but with extraordinary consequences.
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Affiliation(s)
- Simon M Reader
- Department of Biology, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada
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15
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Abstract
The presence of general intelligence poses a major evolutionary puzzle, which has led to increased interest in its presence in nonhuman animals. The aim of this review is to critically evaluate this question and to explore the implications for current theories about the evolution of cognition. We first review domain-general and domain-specific accounts of human cognition in order to situate attempts to identify general intelligence in nonhuman animals. Recent studies are consistent with the presence of general intelligence in mammals (rodents and primates). However, the interpretation of a psychometric g factor as general intelligence needs to be validated, in particular in primates, and we propose a range of such tests. We then evaluate the implications of general intelligence in nonhuman animals for current theories about its evolution and find support for the cultural intelligence approach, which stresses the critical importance of social inputs during the ontogenetic construction of survival-relevant skills. The presence of general intelligence in nonhumans implies that modular abilities can arise in two ways, primarily through automatic development with fixed content and secondarily through learning and automatization with more variable content. The currently best-supported model, for humans and nonhuman vertebrates alike, thus construes the mind as a mix of skills based on primary and secondary modules. The relative importance of these two components is expected to vary widely among species, and we formulate tests to quantify their strength.
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16
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Gingins S, Bshary R. The cleaner wrasse outperforms other labrids in ecologically relevant contexts, but not in spatial discrimination. Anim Behav 2016. [DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2016.02.022] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/07/2023]
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17
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Press C, Berlot E, Bird G, Ivry R, Cook R. Moving time: the influence of action on duration perception. J Exp Psychol Gen 2014; 143:1787-93. [PMID: 25089534 PMCID: PMC4170821 DOI: 10.1037/a0037650] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/10/2013] [Revised: 04/17/2014] [Accepted: 07/07/2014] [Indexed: 11/22/2022]
Abstract
Perceiving the sensory consequences of action accurately is essential for appropriate interaction with our physical and social environments. Prediction mechanisms are considered necessary for fine-tuned sensory control of action, yet paradoxically may distort perception. Here, we examine this paradox by addressing how movement influences the perceived duration of sensory outcomes congruent with action. Experiment 1 required participants to make judgments about the duration of vibrations applied to a moving or stationary finger. In Experiments 2 and 3, participants judged observed finger movements that were congruent or incongruent with their own actions. In all experiments, target events were perceived to be longer when congruent with movement. Interestingly, this temporal dilation did not differ as a function of stimulus perspective (1st or 3rd person) or spatial location. We propose that this bias may reflect the operation of an adaptive mechanism for sensorimotor selection and control that preactivates anticipated outcomes of action. The bias itself may have surprising implications for both action control and perception of others: we may be in contact with grasped objects for less time than we realize, and others' reactions to us may be briefer than we believe.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Eva Berlot
- Division of Psychology and Language Sciences, University College London
| | - Geoffrey Bird
- MRC Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London
| | - Richard Ivry
- Department of Psychology, University of California-Berkeley
| | - Richard Cook
- Department of Psychology, City University London
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18
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Abstract
AbstractCommentators have tended to focus on the conceptual framework of our article, the contrast between genetic and associative accounts of mirror neurons, and to challenge it with additional possibilities rather than empirical data. This makes the empirically focused comments especially valuable. The mirror neuron debate is replete with ideas; what it needs now are system-level theories and careful experiments – tests and testability.
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19
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Pitti A, Kuniyoshi Y, Quoy M, Gaussier P. Modeling the minimal newborn's intersubjective mind: the visuotopic-somatotopic alignment hypothesis in the superior colliculus. PLoS One 2013; 8:e69474. [PMID: 23922718 PMCID: PMC3724856 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0069474] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/29/2013] [Accepted: 06/10/2013] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
The question whether newborns possess inborn social skills is a long debate in developmental psychology. Fetal behavioral and anatomical observations show evidences for the control of eye movements and facial behaviors during the third trimester of pregnancy whereas specific sub-cortical areas, like the superior colliculus (SC) and the striatum appear to be functionally mature to support these behaviors. These observations suggest that the newborn is potentially mature for developing minimal social skills. In this manuscript, we propose that the mechanism of sensory alignment observed in SC is particularly important for enabling the social skills observed at birth such as facial preference and facial mimicry. In a computational simulation of the maturing superior colliculus connected to a simulated facial tissue of a fetus, we model how the incoming tactile information is used to direct visual attention toward faces. We suggest that the unisensory superficial visual layer (eye-centered) and the deep somatopic layer (face-centered) in SC are combined into an intermediate layer for visuo-tactile integration and that multimodal alignment in this third layer allows newborns to have a sensitivity to configuration of eyes and mouth. We show that the visual and tactile maps align through a Hebbian learning stage and and strengthen their synaptic links from each other into the intermediate layer. It results that the global network produces some emergent properties such as sensitivity toward the spatial configuration of face-like patterns and the detection of eyes and mouth movement.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alexandre Pitti
- Department of Compter Sciences, ETIS Laboratory, UMR CNRS 8051, the University of Cergy-Pontoise, ENSEA, Cergy-Pontoise, France.
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20
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Gajdon GK, Ortner TM, Wolf CC, Huber L. How to solve a mechanical problem: the relevance of visible and unobservable functionality for kea. Anim Cogn 2012; 16:483-92. [PMID: 23269471 DOI: 10.1007/s10071-012-0588-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/10/2012] [Revised: 12/07/2012] [Accepted: 12/10/2012] [Indexed: 10/27/2022]
Abstract
Animals sometimes succeed quickly in solving a mechanical problem that is a modification of one they have previously learnt to solve. However, they may do so by attending to the visible features of the relevant physical dimension without knowing its causal functionality, if that is not directly perceivable. This kind of problem solving can be tested by simultaneously offering two mechanical devices with the same visual features but different inherent appropriateness for problem solving. Here, we provide data collected by following this procedure for the first time in a bird species. Captive kea, Nestor notabilis, a parrot species highly interested in the affordances of objects, were offered a mechanical problem in which they had to remove a baited tube from one of two upright poles where removal was blocked at the end of one pole but not the other. With extended but not with restricted exploration of a baseline apparatus, the kea immediately succeeded in removing the tube from an apparatus that had modified pole ends when they were able to visually observe (without touching) that one of these ends would block tube removal but the other would not. However, when the kea were allowed to explore two poles that had a removable and a fixed obstruction where the difference in function was not visible, they preferred the removable one during unbaited exploration but failed afterwards to push a tube to the end of the pole with the loose structure during subsequent baited test trials. Thus, in spite of the speed with which the kea learnt the tasks, there was no indication that they understood the underlying unobservable causal structure of the problem.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gy K Gajdon
- Messerli Research Institute, University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna, Veterinärplatz 1, 1210, Vienna, Austria.
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Thomaschke R. Investigating ideomotor cognition with motorvisual priming paradigms: key findings, methodological challenges, and future directions. Front Psychol 2012. [PMID: 23189067 PMCID: PMC3505020 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2012.00519] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/22/2022] Open
Abstract
Ideomotor theory claims that perceptual representations of action-effects are functionally involved in the planning of actions. Strong evidence for this claim comes from a phenomenon called motorvisual priming. Motorvisual priming refers to the finding that action planning directly affects perception, and that the effects are selective for stimuli that share features with the planned action. Motorvisual priming studies have provided detailed insights into the processing of perceptual representations in action planning. One important finding is that such representations in action planning have a categorical format, whereas metric representations are not anticipated in planning. Further essential findings regard the processing mechanisms and the time course of ideomotor cognition. Perceptual representations of action-effects are first activated by action planning and then bound into a compound representation of the action plan. This compound representation is stabilized throughout the course of the action by the shielding of all involved representations from other cognitive processes. Despite a rapid growth in the number of motorvisual priming studies in the current literature, there are still many aspects of ideomotor cognition which have not yet been investigated. These aspects include the scope of ideomotor processing with regard to action types and stimulus types, as well as the exact nature of the binding and shielding mechanisms involved.
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Affiliation(s)
- Roland Thomaschke
- Institut für Psychologie, Universität Regensburg Regensburg, Germany
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Abstract
Humans are animals that specialize in thinking and knowing, and our extraordinary cognitive abilities have transformed every aspect of our lives. In contrast to our chimpanzee cousins and Stone Age ancestors, we are complex political, economic, scientific and artistic creatures, living in a vast range of habitats, many of which are our own creation. Research on the evolution of human cognition asks what types of thinking make us such peculiar animals, and how they have been generated by evolutionary processes. New research in this field looks deeper into the evolutionary history of human cognition, and adopts a more multi-disciplinary approach than earlier 'Evolutionary Psychology'. It is informed by comparisons between humans and a range of primate and non-primate species, and integrates findings from anthropology, archaeology, economics, evolutionary biology, neuroscience, philosophy and psychology. Using these methods, recent research reveals profound commonalities, as well striking differences, between human and non-human minds, and suggests that the evolution of human cognition has been much more gradual and incremental than previously assumed. It accords crucial roles to cultural evolution, techno-social co-evolution and gene-culture co-evolution. These have produced domain-general developmental processes with extraordinary power-power that makes human cognition, and human lives, unique.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cecilia Heyes
- All Souls College and Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 4AL, UK.
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Heyes C. Grist and mills: on the cultural origins of cultural learning. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2012; 367:2181-91. [PMID: 22734061 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2012.0120] [Citation(s) in RCA: 72] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/12/2023] Open
Abstract
Cumulative cultural evolution is what 'makes us odd'; our capacity to learn facts and techniques from others, and to refine them over generations, plays a major role in making human minds and lives radically different from those of other animals. In this article, I discuss cognitive processes that are known collectively as 'cultural learning' because they enable cumulative cultural evolution. These cognitive processes include reading, social learning, imitation, teaching, social motivation and theory of mind. Taking the first of these three types of cultural learning as examples, I ask whether and to what extent these cognitive processes have been adapted genetically or culturally to enable cumulative cultural evolution. I find that recent empirical work in comparative psychology, developmental psychology and cognitive neuroscience provides surprisingly little evidence of genetic adaptation, and ample evidence of cultural adaptation. This raises the possibility that it is not only 'grist' but also 'mills' that are culturally inherited; through social interaction in the course of development, we not only acquire facts about the world and how to deal with it (grist), we also build the cognitive processes that make 'fact inheritance' possible (mills).
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Affiliation(s)
- Cecilia Heyes
- All Souls College and Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
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Paulus M, Moore C. Producing and understanding prosocial actions in early childhood. ADVANCES IN CHILD DEVELOPMENT AND BEHAVIOR 2012; 42:271-305. [PMID: 22675909 DOI: 10.1016/b978-0-12-394388-0.00008-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/28/2022]
Abstract
Early prosocial development has become a topic of great interest in recent years as experimental studies have provided evidence that instances of prosocial action can already be found in the second year of life. In this contribution, we review the recent literature on young children's production of prosocial actions, in particular helping, sharing, and comforting, and their understanding of others' prosocial behavior. We summarize the novel insights gained by recent studies and point to directions for future studies. Overall, we suggest that while the field consists of considerable knowledge about the developmental timeline of prosocial behavior, more research is needed to examine and better understand underlying social-cognitive mechanisms.
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25
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Hodgson D. Accommodating Opposing Perspectives in the “Modern Human Behavior” Debate. CURRENT ANTHROPOLOGY 2012. [DOI: 10.1086/665661] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/03/2022]
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26
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Subiaul F, Vonk J, Rutherford MD. The ghosts in the computer: the role of agency and animacy attributions in "ghost controls". PLoS One 2011; 6:e26429. [PMID: 22073165 PMCID: PMC3208540 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0026429] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/16/2011] [Accepted: 09/26/2011] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Three studies evaluated the role of 4-year-old children's agency- and animacy-attributions when learning from a computerized ghost control (GC). In GCs, participants observe events occurring without an apparent agent, as if executed by a "ghost" or unobserved causal forces. Using a touch-screen, children in Experiment 1 responded to three pictures in a specific order under three learning conditions: (i) trial-and-error (Baseline), (ii) imitation and (iii) Ghost Control. Before testing in the GC, children were read one of three scripts that determined agency attributions. Post-test assessments confirmed that all children attributed agency to the computer and learned in all GCs. In Experiment 2, children were not trained on the computer prior to testing, and no scripts were used. Three different GCs, varying in number of agency cues, were used. Children failed to learn in these GCs, yet attributed agency and animacy to the computer. Experiment 3 evaluated whether children could learn from a human model in the absence of training under conditions where the information presented by the model and the computer was either consistent or inconsistent. Children evidenced learning in both of these conditions. Overall, learning in social conditions (Exp. 3) was significantly better than learning in GCs (Exp. 2). These results, together with other published research, suggest that children privilege social over non-social sources of information and are generally more adept at learning novel tasks from a human than from a computer or GC.
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Affiliation(s)
- Francys Subiaul
- Department of Speech and Hearing Science, The George Washington University, Washington, DC, United States of America.
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van Horik J, Emery NJ. Evolution of cognition. WILEY INTERDISCIPLINARY REVIEWS. COGNITIVE SCIENCE 2011; 2:621-633. [PMID: 26302412 DOI: 10.1002/wcs.144] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/05/2022]
Abstract
Renewed interest in the field of comparative cognition over the past 30 years has led to a renaissance in our thinking of how cognition evolved. Here, we review historical and comparative approaches to the study of psychological evolution, focusing on cognitive differences based on evolutionary divergence, but also cognitive similarities based on evolutionary convergence. Both approaches have contributed to major theories of cognitive evolution in humans and non-human animals. As a result, not only have we furthered our understanding of the evolution of the human mind and its unique attributes, but we have also identified complex cognitive capacities in a few large-brained species, evolved from solving social and ecological challenges requiring a flexible mind. WIREs Cogni Sci 2011 2 621-633 DOI: 10.1002/wcs.144 For further resources related to this article, please visit the WIREs website.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jayden van Horik
- School of Biological & Chemical Sciences, Queen Mary, University of London, London, UK
| | - Nathan J Emery
- School of Biological & Chemical Sciences, Queen Mary, University of London, London, UK
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Social attitudes differentially modulate imitation in adolescents and adults. Exp Brain Res 2011; 211:601-12. [PMID: 21336831 PMCID: PMC3102210 DOI: 10.1007/s00221-011-2584-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 51] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/05/2010] [Accepted: 01/29/2011] [Indexed: 10/28/2022]
Abstract
Previous studies have demonstrated a bidirectional relationship between social attitudes and imitation in adults: pro-social attitudes promote imitation, and imitation further increases positive social attitudes. Social attitudes and the social brain are developing throughout the adolescent years. Thus, the aim of this study was to test whether pro-social attitudes promote imitation in an Adolescent Group to the same extent as in an Adult Group. Participants were primed with pro-social or non-social words in a Scrambled Sentence Priming task. They then completed an Imitation task wherein participants were required to perform a lift action with either the index or middle finger, whilst observing either a compatible action (e.g. index finger response and observed index finger lift) or an incompatible action (e.g. index finger response and observed middle finger lift). In an Effector Priming control condition, observed fingers remained stationary but a semi-transparent green mask was added to either the compatible or incompatible finger. The magnitude of the Imitation Effect and Effector Priming Effect was calculated by subtracting reaction times on compatible trials from those on incompatible trials. In the Adult Group, social priming specifically modulated the Imitation Effect: pro-social priming produced a larger Imitation Effect but did not modulate the Effector Priming Effect. In adolescents, however, no effect of social priming was seen on either the Imitation or Effector Priming measures. We consider possible explanations for these results including the immature development of social brain regions and reduced experience of the relationship between social attitudes and imitation in adolescence.
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Leighton J, Bird G, Orsini C, Heyes C. Social attitudes modulate automatic imitation. JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY 2010. [DOI: 10.1016/j.jesp.2010.07.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 111] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/24/2022]
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Affiliation(s)
- Elizabeth Ray
- Department of Psychology, University College London, UK
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31
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Alaerts K, Swinnen SP, Wenderoth N. Action perception in individuals with congenital blindness or deafness: how does the loss of a sensory modality from birth affect perception-induced motor facilitation? J Cogn Neurosci 2010; 23:1080-7. [PMID: 20521855 DOI: 10.1162/jocn.2010.21517] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/04/2022]
Abstract
Seeing or hearing manual actions activates the mirror neuron system, that is, specialized neurons within motor areas which fire when an action is performed but also when it is passively perceived. Using TMS, it was shown that motor cortex of typically developed subjects becomes facilitated not only from seeing others' actions, but also from merely hearing action-related sounds. In the present study, TMS was used for the first time to explore the "auditory" and "visual" responsiveness of motor cortex in individuals with congenital blindness or deafness. TMS was applied over left primary motor cortex (M1) to measure cortico-motor facilitation while subjects passively perceived manual actions (either visually or aurally). Although largely unexpected, congenitally blind or deaf subjects displayed substantially lower resonant motor facilitation upon action perception compared to seeing/hearing control subjects. Moreover, muscle-specific changes in cortico-motor excitability within M1 appeared to be absent in individuals with profound blindness or deafness. Overall, these findings strongly argue against the hypothesis that an increased reliance on the remaining sensory modality in blind or deaf subjects is accompanied by an increased responsiveness of the "auditory" or "visual" perceptual-motor "mirror" system, respectively. Moreover, the apparent lack of resonant motor facilitation for the blind and deaf subjects may challenge the hypothesis of a unitary mirror system underlying human action recognition and may suggest that action perception in blind and deaf subjects engages a mode of action processing that is different from the human action recognition system recruited in typically developed subjects.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kaat Alaerts
- Research Centre of Movement Control and Neuroplasticity, Department of Biomedical Kinesiology, Katholieke Universtiteit Leuven, Belgium.
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32
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Wilkinson A, Kuenstner K, Mueller J, Huber L. Social learning in a non-social reptile (Geochelone carbonaria). Biol Lett 2010; 6:614-6. [PMID: 20356886 DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2010.0092] [Citation(s) in RCA: 104] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
The ability to learn from the actions of another is adaptive, as it is a shortcut for acquiring new information. However, the evolutionary origins of this trait are still unclear. There is evidence that group-living mammals, birds, fishes and insects can learn through observation, but this has never been investigated in reptiles. Here, we show that the non-social red-footed tortoise (Geochelone carbonaria) can learn from the actions of a conspecific in a detour task; non-observer animals (without a conspecific demonstrator) failed. This result provides the first evidence that a non-social species can use social cues to solve a task that it cannot solve through individual learning, challenging the idea that social learning is an adaptation for social living.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anna Wilkinson
- Department of Cognitive Biology, University of Vienna, Althanstrasse 14, Vienna 1090, Austria.
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Calvo-Merino B, Ehrenberg S, Leung D, Haggard P. Experts see it all: configural effects in action observation. PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH 2009; 74:400-6. [PMID: 19856185 DOI: 10.1007/s00426-009-0262-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 98] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/14/2009] [Accepted: 10/06/2009] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
Abstract
Biological motion perception is influenced by observers' familiarity with the observed action. Here, we used classical dance as a means to investigate how visual and motor experience modulates perceptual mechanism for configural processing of actions. Although some ballet moves are performed by only one gender, male and female dancers train together and acquire visual knowledge of all ballet moves. Twenty-four expert ballet dancers (12 female) and matched non-expert participants viewed pairs of upright and inverted point light female and common dance movements. Visual discrimination between different exemplars of the same movement presented upright was significantly better in experts than controls, whilst no differences were found when the same stimuli were presented upside down. These results suggest expertise influences configural action processing. Within the expert group, effects were stronger for female participants than for males, whilst no differences were found between movement types. This observer gender effect could suggest an additional role for motor familiarity in action perception, over and above the visual experience. Our results are consistent with a specific motor contribution to configural processing of action.
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Affiliation(s)
- Beatriz Calvo-Merino
- Psychology Department, School of Social Science, City University London, Northampton Square, London EC1V 0HB, UK.
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Interaction of sound and sight during action perception: Evidence for shared modality-dependent action representations. Neuropsychologia 2009; 47:2593-9. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2009.05.006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 33] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/20/2009] [Revised: 04/06/2009] [Accepted: 05/11/2009] [Indexed: 11/24/2022]
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36
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Catmur C, Walsh V, Heyes C. Associative sequence learning: the role of experience in the development of imitation and the mirror system. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2009; 364:2369-80. [PMID: 19620108 PMCID: PMC2865072 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2009.0048] [Citation(s) in RCA: 191] [Impact Index Per Article: 12.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
A core requirement for imitation is a capacity to solve the correspondence problem; to map observed onto executed actions, even when observation and execution yield sensory inputs in different modalities and coordinate frames. Until recently, it was assumed that the human capacity to solve the correspondence problem is innate. However, it is now becoming apparent that, as predicted by the associative sequence learning model, experience, and especially sensorimotor experience, plays a critical role in the development of imitation. We review evidence from studies of non-human animals, children and adults, focusing on research in cognitive neuroscience that uses training and naturally occurring variations in expertise to examine the role of experience in the formation of the mirror system. The relevance of this research depends on the widely held assumption that the mirror system plays a causal role in generating imitative behaviour. We also report original data supporting this assumption. These data show that theta-burst transcranial magnetic stimulation of the inferior frontal gyrus, a classical mirror system area, disrupts automatic imitation of finger movements. We discuss the implications of the evidence reviewed for the evolution, development and intentional control of imitation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Caroline Catmur
- Department of Psychology, University College London, London WC1H 0AP, UK
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37
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Evolutionary radiation and the spectrum of consciousness. Conscious Cogn 2009; 18:160-7. [PMID: 19138864 DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2008.12.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/09/2008] [Revised: 12/01/2008] [Accepted: 12/02/2008] [Indexed: 11/23/2022]
Abstract
Evolution is littered with polyphyletic parallelism: many roads lead to functional Romes. We propose consciousness embodies one such example, and represent it here with an equivalence class structure that factors the broad realm of necessary conditions information theoretic realizations of Baars' global workspace model. The construction suggests many different physiological systems can support rapidly shifting, highly tunable, and even simultaneous temporary assemblages of interacting unconscious cognitive modules. The discovery implies various animal taxa exhibiting behaviors we broadly recognize as conscious are, in fact, expressing different forms of the same underlying phenomenon. The variety of possibilities suggests minds today may be only a small surviving fraction of ancient evolutionary radiations--bush phylogenies of consciousness pruned by selection and chance extinction. Although few traces of the radiations may be found in the fossil record, exaptations and vestiges are scattered across the living mind.
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Gurland BJ, Gurland RV. The choices, choosing model of quality of life: description and rationale. Int J Geriatr Psychiatry 2009; 24:90-5. [PMID: 18836984 DOI: 10.1002/gps.2110] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/06/2022]
Abstract
AIM This introductory paper offers a critical review of current models and measures of quality of life, and describes a choices and choosing (c-c) process as a new model of quality of life. METHOD Criteria are proposed for judging the relative merits of models of quality of life with preference being given to explicit mechanisms, linkages to a science base, a means of identifying deficits amenable to rational restorative interventions, and with embedded values of the whole person. RESULT A conjectured model, based on the processes of gaining access to choices and choosing among them, matches the proposed criteria. The c-c process is an evolved adaptive mechanism dedicated to the pursuit of quality of life, driven by specific biological and psychological systems, and influenced by social and environmental forces. CONCLUSIONS This model strengthens the science base for the field of quality of life, unifies approaches to concept and measurement, and guides the evaluation of impairments of quality of life. Corresponding interventions can be aimed at relieving restrictions or distortions of the c-c process; thus helping people to preserve and improve their quality of life. RELATED WORK: Companion papers detail relevant aspects of the science base, present methods of identifying deficits and distortions of the c-c model so as to open opportunities for rational restorative interventions, and explore empirical analyses of the relationship between health imposed restrictions of c-c and conventional indicators of diminished quality of life. [corrected]
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Affiliation(s)
- Barry J Gurland
- Columbia University Stroud Center for Study of Quality of Life, 100 Haven Ave, T3-30F, New York, NY 10032, USA.
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39
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Press C, Bird G, Walsh E, Heyes C. Automatic imitation of intransitive actions. Brain Cogn 2008; 67:44-50. [DOI: 10.1016/j.bandc.2007.11.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 54] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/19/2007] [Revised: 10/26/2007] [Accepted: 11/03/2007] [Indexed: 10/22/2022]
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Press C, Gillmeister H, Heyes C. Sensorimotor experience enhances automatic imitation of robotic action. Proc Biol Sci 2007; 274:2509-14. [PMID: 17698489 PMCID: PMC2275887 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2007.0774] [Citation(s) in RCA: 100] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Recent research in cognitive neuroscience has found that observation of human actions activates the 'mirror system' and provokes automatic imitation to a greater extent than observation of non-biological movements. The present study investigated whether this human bias depends primarily on phylogenetic or ontogenetic factors by examining the effects of sensorimotor experience on automatic imitation of non-biological robotic, stimuli. Automatic imitation of human and robotic action stimuli was assessed before and after training. During these test sessions, participants were required to execute a pre-specified response (e.g. to open their hand) while observing a human or robotic hand making a compatible (opening) or incompatible (closing) movement. During training, participants executed opening and closing hand actions while observing compatible (group CT) or incompatible movements (group IT) of a robotic hand. Compatible, but not incompatible, training increased automatic imitation of robotic stimuli (speed of responding on compatible trials, compared with incompatible trials) and abolished the human bias observed at pre-test. These findings suggest that the development of the mirror system depends on sensorimotor experience, and that, in our species, it is biased in favour of human action stimuli because these are more abundant than non-biological action stimuli in typical developmental environments.
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Affiliation(s)
- Clare Press
- Department of Psychology, University College London, 26 Bedford Way, London WC1H 0AP, UK.
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Abstract
A distinction between potentially evolved, or biologically-primary forms of cognition, and the culturally-specific, or biologically-secondary forms of cognition that are built from primary systems is used to explore mathematical learning disability (MLD). Using this model, MLD could result from deficits in the brain and cognitive systems that support biologically-primary mathematical competencies, or from the brain and cognitive systems that support the modification of primary systems for the creation of secondary knowledge and secondary cognitive competencies. The former include visuospatial long-term and working memory and the intraparietal sulcus, whereas the latter include the central executive component of working memory and the anterior cingulate cortex and lateral prefrontal cortex. Different forms of MLD are discussed as related to each of the cognitive and brain systems.
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Affiliation(s)
- David C Geary
- Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Missouri at Columbia, MO 65211-2500, USA.
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COMMENTARIES ON Evolutionary Foundations of Cultural Variation: Evoked Culture and Mate Preferences. PSYCHOLOGICAL INQUIRY 2006. [DOI: 10.1207/s15327965pli1702_2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 86] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/31/2022]
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Press C, Bird G, Flach R, Heyes C. Robotic movement elicits automatic imitation. ACTA ACUST UNITED AC 2005; 25:632-40. [PMID: 16344220 DOI: 10.1016/j.cogbrainres.2005.08.020] [Citation(s) in RCA: 136] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/21/2005] [Revised: 07/21/2005] [Accepted: 08/18/2005] [Indexed: 10/25/2022]
Abstract
Recent behavioural and neuroimaging studies have found that observation of human movement, but not of robotic movement, gives rise to visuomotor priming. This implies that the 'mirror neuron' or 'action observation-execution matching' system in the premotor and parietal cortices is entirely unresponsive to robotic movement. The present study investigated this hypothesis using an 'automatic imitation' stimulus-response compatibility procedure. Participants were required to perform a prespecified movement (e.g. opening their hand) on presentation of a human or robotic hand in the terminal posture of a compatible movement (opened) or an incompatible movement (closed). Both the human and the robotic stimuli elicited automatic imitation; the prespecified action was initiated faster when it was cued by the compatible movement stimulus than when it was cued by the incompatible movement stimulus. However, even when the human and robotic stimuli were of comparable size, colour and brightness, the human hand had a stronger effect on performance. These results suggest that effector shape is sufficient to allow the action observation-matching system to distinguish human from robotic movement. They also indicate, as one would expect if this system develops through learning, that to varying degrees both human and robotic action can be 'simulated' by the premotor and parietal cortices.
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Affiliation(s)
- Clare Press
- Department of Psychology, University College London, Gower Street, London, WC1H OAP, UK
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45
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Brass M, Heyes C. Imitation: is cognitive neuroscience solving the correspondence problem? Trends Cogn Sci 2005; 9:489-95. [PMID: 16126449 DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2005.08.007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 334] [Impact Index Per Article: 17.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/31/2005] [Revised: 07/26/2005] [Accepted: 08/16/2005] [Indexed: 11/23/2022]
Abstract
Imitation poses a unique problem: how does the imitator know what pattern of motor activation will make their action look like that of the model? Specialist theories suggest that this correspondence problem has a unique solution; there are functional and neurological mechanisms dedicated to controlling imitation. Generalist theories propose that the problem is solved by general mechanisms of associative learning and action control. Recent research in cognitive neuroscience, stimulated by the discovery of mirror neurons, supports generalist solutions. Imitation is based on the automatic activation of motor representations by movement observation. These externally triggered motor representations are then used to reproduce the observed behaviour. This imitative capacity depends on learned perceptual-motor links. Finally, mechanisms distinguishing self from other are implicated in the inhibition of imitative behaviour.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marcel Brass
- Department of Cognitive Neurology, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Stephanstrasse 1A, 04103 Leipzig, Germany.
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Abstract
This chapter reviews theory and research on intraindividual personality structures and processes. Principles for modeling the architecture of personality, that is, the overall design and operating characteristics of intraindividual personality systems, are addressed. Research demonstrates that a focus on within-person structures and processes advances the understanding of two aspects of personality coherence: the functional relations among distinct elements of personality, and cross-situational coherence in personality functioning that results from interactions among enduring knowledge structures and dynamic appraisal processes. Also reviewed are recent conceptual and empirical advances, which demonstrate that the interindividual personality variables that summarize variability in the population are wholly insufficient for modeling intraindividual personality architecture.
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Affiliation(s)
- Daniel Cervone
- Department of Psychology, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL 60607-7137, USA.
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47
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Heyes C, Bird G, Johnson H, Haggard P. Experience modulates automatic imitation. ACTA ACUST UNITED AC 2005; 22:233-40. [PMID: 15653296 DOI: 10.1016/j.cogbrainres.2004.09.009] [Citation(s) in RCA: 182] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 09/07/2004] [Indexed: 11/20/2022]
Abstract
Action observation gives rise to activation in corresponding areas of the premotor and primary motor cortices. We tested the hypothesis that this activation depends on visual-motor connections established through correlated experience of observing and executing the same action. Previous work has shown that hand opening and hand closing gestures are facilitated when subjects observe the movement they are performing, relative to a condition in which they observe a different movement from the one they are performing. Experiment 1 replicated this finding in a simple reaction time (RT) procedure using stimulus-response (SR) movements in orthogonal planes. This implies that the effect is an example of automatic imitation, an instruction-independent tendency to execute movements that are topologically similar to those observed, and not merely an example of spatially compatible responding. In Experiment 2, the automatic imitation effect found in Experiment 1 was abolished by a brief period of training in which subjects responded to hand opening by closing their hands, and to hand closing by opening their hands. This outcome is consistent with the hypothesis that, rather than being innate, the cortical connections mediating motor activation by action observation are formed through experience.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cecilia Heyes
- Department of Psychology and Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, United Kingdom.
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