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Zacks O, Jablonka E. The evolutionary origins of the Global Neuronal Workspace in vertebrates. Neurosci Conscious 2023; 2023:niad020. [PMID: 37711313 PMCID: PMC10499063 DOI: 10.1093/nc/niad020] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/18/2023] [Revised: 08/01/2023] [Accepted: 08/24/2023] [Indexed: 09/16/2023] Open
Abstract
The Global Neuronal Workspace theory of consciousness offers an explicit functional architecture that relates consciousness to cognitive abilities such as perception, attention, memory, and evaluation. We show that the functional architecture of the Global Neuronal Workspace, which is based mainly on human studies, corresponds to the cognitive-affective architecture proposed by the Unlimited Associative Learning theory that describes minimal consciousness. However, we suggest that when applied to basal vertebrates, both models require important modifications to accommodate what has been learned about the evolution of the vertebrate brain. Most importantly, comparative studies suggest that in basal vertebrates, the Global Neuronal Workspace is instantiated by the event memory system found in the hippocampal homolog. This proposal has testable predictions and implications for understanding hippocampal and cortical functions, the evolutionary relations between memory and consciousness, and the evolution of unified perception.
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Affiliation(s)
- Oryan Zacks
- The Cohn Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Ideas, Tel Aviv University, Ramat Aviv 6934525, Israel
| | - Eva Jablonka
- The Cohn Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Ideas, Tel Aviv University, Ramat Aviv 6934525, Israel
- CPNSS, London School of Economics, Houghton St., London WC2A 2AE, United Kingdom
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Elimari N, Lafargue G. Neural correlates of performance monitoring vary as a function of competition between automatic and controlled processes: An ERP study. Conscious Cogn 2023; 110:103505. [PMID: 37001443 DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2023.103505] [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: 07/11/2022] [Revised: 02/13/2023] [Accepted: 03/07/2023] [Indexed: 04/09/2023]
Abstract
Dual process theories of attitude formation propose that an evolutionary old associative system automatically generates subjective judgments by processing mere spatiotemporal contiguity between paired objects, subjects, or events. These judgments can potentially contradict our well-reasoned evaluations and highjack decisional or behavioral outcomes. Contrary to this perspective, other models stress the exclusive work of a single propositional system that consciously process co-occurrences between environmental cues and produce propositions, i.e., mental statements that capture the specific manner through which stimuli are linked. We constructed an experiment on the premise that it would be possible, if the associative system does produce attitudes in a parallel non-conscious fashion, to condition two mutually exclusive attitudes (one implicit, the other explicit) toward a same stimulus. Through explicit ratings, inhibition performance, and neural correlates of performance monitoring, we assessed whether there was a discrepancy between stimuli that were conditioned with (1) the two systems working in harmony (i.e., producing congruent attitudes), or (2) the two systems working in competition (i.e., producing incongruent attitudes). Compared with congruent stimuli, incongruent stimuli consistently elicited more neutral liking scores, higher response times and error rates, as well as a diminished amplitudes in two well-studied neural correlates of automatic error detection (i.e., error-related negativity) and conscious appraisal of error commission (i.e., error-related positivity). Our findings are discussed in the light of evolutionary psychology, dual-process theories of attitude formation and theoretical frameworks on the functional significance of error-related neural markers.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nassim Elimari
- Université de Reims Champagne Ardenne, C2S, EA 6291, France
| | - Gilles Lafargue
- Université de Reims Champagne Ardenne, C2S, EA 6291, France.
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Hardwired… to Self- Destruct? Using Technology to Improve Behavior Change Science. HEALTH PSYCHOLOGY BULLETIN 2021. [DOI: 10.5334/hpb.26] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/20/2022] Open
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Birch J, Ginsburg S, Jablonka E. Unlimited Associative Learning and the origins of consciousness: a primer and some predictions. BIOLOGY & PHILOSOPHY 2020; 35:56. [PMID: 33597791 PMCID: PMC7116763 DOI: 10.1007/s10539-020-09772-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 27] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/18/2020] [Accepted: 10/14/2020] [Indexed: 06/01/2023]
Abstract
Over the past two decades, Ginsburg and Jablonka have developed a novel approach to studying the evolutionary origins of consciousness: the Unlimited Associative Learning (UAL) framework. The central idea is that there is a distinctive type of learning that can serve as a transition marker for the evolutionary transition from non-conscious to conscious life. The goal of this paper is to stimulate discussion of the framework by providing a primer on its key claims (Part I) and a clear statement of its main empirical predictions (Part II).
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Affiliation(s)
- Jonathan Birch
- Centre for Philosophy of Natural and Social Science, London School of Economics and Political Science, Houghton Street, London WC2A 2AE, UK
| | - Simona Ginsburg
- Natural Science Department, The Open University of Israel, 1 University Road, 4353701 Raanana, Israel
| | - Eva Jablonka
- Centre for Philosophy of Natural and Social Science, London School of Economics and Political Science, Houghton Street, London WC2A 2AE, UK
- The Cohn Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Ideas, Tel Aviv University, 6934525 Ramat Aviv, Israel
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Reybrouck M, Podlipniak P, Welch D. Music Listening as Coping Behavior: From Reactive Response to Sense-Making. Behav Sci (Basel) 2020; 10:E119. [PMID: 32698450 PMCID: PMC7407588 DOI: 10.3390/bs10070119] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/15/2020] [Revised: 07/10/2020] [Accepted: 07/14/2020] [Indexed: 11/22/2022] Open
Abstract
Coping is a survival mechanism of living organisms. It is not merely reactive, but also involves making sense of the environment by rendering sensory information into percepts that have meaning in the context of an organism's cognitions. Music listening, on the other hand, is a complex task that embraces sensory, physiological, behavioral, and cognitive levels of processing. Being both a dispositional process that relies on our evolutionary toolkit for coping with the world and a more elaborated skill for sense-making, it goes beyond primitive action-reaction couplings by the introduction of higher-order intermediary variables between sensory input and effector reactions. Consideration of music-listening from the perspective of coping treats music as a sound environment and listening as a process that involves exploration of this environment as well as interactions with the sounds. Several issues are considered in this regard such as the conception of music as a possible stressor, the role of adaptive listening, the relation between coping and reward, the importance of self-regulation strategies in the selection of music, and the instrumental meaning of music in the sense that it can be used to modify the internal and external environment of the listener.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mark Reybrouck
- Musicology Research Group, Faculty of Arts, KU Leuven-University of Leuven, 3000 Leuven, Belgium
- IPEM, Department of Art History, Musicology and Theatre Studies, 9000 Ghent, Belgium
| | - Piotr Podlipniak
- Institute of Musicology, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, 61–712 Poznań, Poland;
| | - David Welch
- Institute Audiology Section, School of Population Health, University of Auckland, 2011 Auckland, New Zealand;
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Abstract
Across all species, individuals thrive in complex ecological systems, which they rarely have complete knowledge of. To cope with this uncertainty and still make good choices while avoiding costly errors, organisms have developed the ability to exploit key features associated with their environment. That through experience, humans and other animals are quick at learning to associate specific cues with particular places, events and circumstances has long been known; the idea that plants are also capable of learning by association had never been proven until now. Here I comment on the recent paper that experimentally demonstrated associative learning in plants, thus qualifying them as proper subjects of cognitive research. Additionally, I make the point that the current fundamental premise in cognitive science—that we must understanding the precise neural underpinning of a given cognitive feature in order to understand the evolution of cognition and behavior—needs to be reimagined.
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Affiliation(s)
- Monica Gagliano
- Centre for Evolutionary Biology, School of Animal Biology, University of Western Australia, Crawley, Western Australia, Australia
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Bronfman ZZ, Ginsburg S, Jablonka E. The Transition to Minimal Consciousness through the Evolution of Associative Learning. Front Psychol 2016; 7:1954. [PMID: 28066282 PMCID: PMC5177968 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01954] [Citation(s) in RCA: 34] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/02/2016] [Accepted: 11/29/2016] [Indexed: 12/25/2022] Open
Abstract
The minimal state of consciousness is sentience. This includes any phenomenal sensory experience - exteroceptive, such as vision and olfaction; interoceptive, such as pain and hunger; or proprioceptive, such as the sense of bodily position and movement. We propose unlimited associative learning (UAL) as the marker of the evolutionary transition to minimal consciousness (or sentience), its phylogenetically earliest sustainable manifestation and the driver of its evolution. We define and describe UAL at the behavioral and functional level and argue that the structural-anatomical implementations of this mode of learning in different taxa entail subjective feelings (sentience). We end with a discussion of the implications of our proposal for the distribution of consciousness in the animal kingdom, suggesting testable predictions, and revisiting the ongoing debate about the function of minimal consciousness in light of our approach.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zohar Z Bronfman
- The Cohn Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Ideas, Tel Aviv UniversityTel Aviv, Israel; School of Psychology, Tel Aviv UniversityTel Aviv, Israel
| | - Simona Ginsburg
- Department of Natural Science, The Open University of Israel Raanana, Israel
| | - Eva Jablonka
- The Cohn Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Ideas, Tel Aviv UniversityTel Aviv, Israel; The Sagol School of Neuroscience, Tel Aviv UniversityTel Aviv, Israel
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The teleological transitions in evolution: A Gántian view. J Theor Biol 2015; 381:55-60. [DOI: 10.1016/j.jtbi.2015.04.007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/05/2015] [Revised: 04/05/2015] [Accepted: 04/07/2015] [Indexed: 02/07/2023]
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Ginsburg S, Jablonka E. The Transition to Experiencing: II. The Evolution of Associative Learning Based on Feelings. ACTA ACUST UNITED AC 2015. [DOI: 10.1162/biot.2007.2.3.231] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/04/2022]
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Klein SB. What memory is. WILEY INTERDISCIPLINARY REVIEWS. COGNITIVE SCIENCE 2014; 6:1-38. [DOI: 10.1002/wcs.1333] [Citation(s) in RCA: 44] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/15/2014] [Revised: 08/25/2014] [Accepted: 10/05/2014] [Indexed: 12/11/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Stanley B. Klein
- Psychological & Brain SciencesUniversity of CaliforniaSanta BarbaraCAUSA
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Klein SB. The temporal orientation of memory: It's time for a change of direction. JOURNAL OF APPLIED RESEARCH IN MEMORY AND COGNITION 2013. [DOI: 10.1016/j.jarmac.2013.08.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 56] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/11/2022]
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Otgaar H, Howe ML. What kind of memory has evolution wrought? Introductory article for the special issue of memory: adaptive memory: the emergence and nature of proximate mechanisms. Memory 2013; 22:1-8. [PMID: 23731185 DOI: 10.1080/09658211.2013.800355] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/26/2022]
Abstract
It is without question that our memory system evolved through a process of natural selection. However, basic research into the evolutionary foundations of memory has begun in earnest only recently. This is quite peculiar as the majority, perhaps even all, of memory research relates to whether memory is adaptive or not. In this Special Issue of Memory we have assembled a variety of papers that represent the cutting edge in research on the evolution of memory. These papers are centred on issues about the ultimate and proximate explanations of memory, the development of the adaptive functions of memory, as well as the positive consequences that arise from the current evolutionary form that our memory has taken. In this introductory article we briefly outline these different areas and indicate why they are vital for a more complete theory of memory. Further we argue that, by adopting a more applied stance in the area of the evolution of memory, one of the many future directions in this field could be a new branch of psychology that addresses questions in evolutionary legal psychology.
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Affiliation(s)
- Henry Otgaar
- a Clinical Psychological Science , Maastricht University , The Netherlands
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Abstract
We suggest that, in animals, the core-affect system is linked to partially assimilated behavioral dispositions that act as developmental scaffolds for the ontogenetic construction of emotions. We also propose that in humans the evolution of language altered the control of emotions, leading to categories that can be adequately captured only by emotion-words.
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Ginsburg S, Jablonka E. The evolution of associative learning: A factor in the Cambrian explosion. J Theor Biol 2010; 266:11-20. [DOI: 10.1016/j.jtbi.2010.06.017] [Citation(s) in RCA: 73] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/07/2010] [Revised: 05/23/2010] [Accepted: 06/09/2010] [Indexed: 02/02/2023]
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Valsiner J. Integrating Psychology within the Globalizing World: A Requiem to the Post-Modernist Experiment with Wissenschaft. Integr Psychol Behav Sci 2009; 43:1-21. [DOI: 10.1007/s12124-009-9087-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 35] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/04/2009] [Accepted: 01/09/2009] [Indexed: 10/21/2022]
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