1
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Diaz AA, Hernández-Pacheco R, Rosati AG. Individual differences in sociocognitive traits in semi-free-ranging rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta). Am J Primatol 2024:e23660. [PMID: 38961748 DOI: 10.1002/ajp.23660] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/26/2024] [Revised: 05/02/2024] [Accepted: 06/21/2024] [Indexed: 07/05/2024]
Abstract
Characterizing individual differences in cognition is crucial for understanding the evolution of cognition as well as to test the biological consequences of different cognitive traits. Here, we harnessed the strengths of a uniquely large, naturally-living primate population at the Cayo Santiago Biological Field Station to characterized individual differences in rhesus monkey performance across two social cognitive tasks. A total of n = 204 semi-free-ranging adult rhesus monkeys participated in a data collection procedure, where we aimed to test individuals on both tasks at two time-points that were one year apart. In the socioemotional responses task, we assessed monkeys' attention to conspecific photographs with neutral versus negative emotional expressions. We found that monkeys showed overall declines in interest in conspecific photographs with age, but relative increases in attention to threat stimuli specifically, and further that these responses exhibited long-term stability across repeated testing. In the gaze following task we assessed monkeys' propensity to co-orient with an experimenter. Here, we found no evidence for age-related change in responses, and responses showed only limited repeatability over time. Finally, we found some evidence for common individual variation for performance across the tasks: monkeys that showed greater interest in conspecific photographs were more likely to follow a human's gaze. These results show how studies of comparative cognitive development and aging can provide insights into the evolution of cognition, and identify core primate social cognitive traits that may be related across and within individuals.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alexis A Diaz
- Department of Biology, Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA
- Department of Biological Sciences, California State University, Long Beach, California, USA
| | | | - Alexandra G Rosati
- Departments of Psychology and Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
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2
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Speechley EM, Ashton BJ, Foo YZ, Simmons LW, Ridley AR. Meta-analyses reveal support for the Social Intelligence Hypothesis. Biol Rev Camb Philos Soc 2024. [PMID: 38855980 DOI: 10.1111/brv.13103] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/27/2023] [Revised: 05/13/2024] [Accepted: 05/15/2024] [Indexed: 06/11/2024]
Abstract
The Social Intelligence Hypothesis (SIH) is one of the leading explanations for the evolution of cognition. Since its inception a vast body of literature investigating the predictions of the SIH has accumulated, using a variety of methodologies and species. However, the generalisability of the hypothesis remains unclear. To gain an understanding of the robustness of the SIH as an explanation for the evolution of cognition, we systematically searched the literature for studies investigating the predictions of the SIH. Accordingly, we compiled 103 studies with 584 effect sizes from 17 taxonomic orders. We present the results of four meta-analyses which reveal support for the SIH across interspecific, intraspecific and developmental studies. However, effect sizes did not differ significantly between the cognitive or sociality metrics used, taxonomy or testing conditions. Thus, support for the SIH is similar across studies using neuroanatomy and cognitive performance, those using broad categories of sociality, group size and social interactions, across taxonomic groups, and for tests conducted in captivity or the wild. Overall, our meta-analyses support the SIH as an evolutionary and developmental explanation for cognitive variation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elizabeth M Speechley
- Centre for Evolutionary Biology, University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Perth, WA, 6009, Australia
| | - Benjamin J Ashton
- Centre for Evolutionary Biology, University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Perth, WA, 6009, Australia
- School of Natural Sciences, Macquarie University, 205b Culloden Road, Sydney, NSW, 2109, Australia
| | - Yong Zhi Foo
- Centre for Evolutionary Biology, University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Perth, WA, 6009, Australia
| | - Leigh W Simmons
- Centre for Evolutionary Biology, University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Perth, WA, 6009, Australia
| | - Amanda R Ridley
- Centre for Evolutionary Biology, University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Perth, WA, 6009, Australia
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3
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Overduin-de Vries AM, Vermande MM, Hessen DJ, Sterck EHM. The ability to inhibit impulses is related to social behavior in long-tailed macaques. Am J Primatol 2024; 86:e23587. [PMID: 38145328 DOI: 10.1002/ajp.23587] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/17/2023] [Revised: 11/23/2023] [Accepted: 12/09/2023] [Indexed: 12/26/2023]
Abstract
Performance in cognitive tasks has been linked to differences in species' social organization, yet to understand its function its relationship to within-species variation in behavior should also be explored. One important cognitive capacity, the ability to inhibit impulses, is typically better in egalitarian than despotic primate species and in primate species with strong fission-fusion dynamics. A different line of research indicates that a high ability to inhibit impulses is related to less aggressive behavior and more socio-positive behavior. However, within species the relationship between performance on cognitive inhibition tasks and variation in social behavior remains to be explored. Here we investigate how performance in a typical inhibition task in cognitive research is related to aggressive and socio-positive behavior in despotic long-tailed macaques. Twenty individuals living in two naturalistic mixed-sex groups were tested with the Plexiglass Hole Task. Aggressive behavior and three types of socio-positive behavior (neutral/friendly approaches, socio-positive signaling, and grooming others) among group members were measured. Individuals differed in their ability to inhibit impulses. Individuals that were not good at inhibiting impulses showed higher rates of aggressive behavior, but also more socio-positive signals, whereas inhibition was not related to neutral/friendly approaches and grooming. These results confirm the positive link between impulsiveness and aggression. In addition, the results indicate that some social-positive behavior may be enhanced when inhibition is limited. In this species, benefits potentially derived from aggression and socio-positive signals match a low ability to inhibit impulses, suggesting that a low ability to inhibit impulses may actually be advantageous. To understand differences between species in cognitive skills, understanding the benefits of variation in a cognitive capacity within a species is crucial.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anne M Overduin-de Vries
- Animal Behaviour & Cognition, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands
- Biomedical Primate Research Centre, Rijswijk, The Netherlands
| | - Marjolijn M Vermande
- Department of Child and Adolescent Studies, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands
| | - David J Hessen
- Department of Methods and Statistics, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands
| | - Elisabeth H M Sterck
- Animal Behaviour & Cognition, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands
- Biomedical Primate Research Centre, Rijswijk, The Netherlands
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4
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Masi M. An evidence-based critical review of the mind-brain identity theory. Front Psychol 2023; 14:1150605. [PMID: 37965649 PMCID: PMC10641890 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1150605] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/24/2023] [Accepted: 09/18/2023] [Indexed: 11/16/2023] Open
Abstract
In the philosophy of mind, neuroscience, and psychology, the causal relationship between phenomenal consciousness, mentation, and brain states has always been a matter of debate. On the one hand, material monism posits consciousness and mind as pure brain epiphenomena. One of its most stringent lines of reasoning relies on a 'loss-of-function lesion premise,' according to which, since brain lesions and neurochemical modifications lead to cognitive impairment and/or altered states of consciousness, there is no reason to doubt the mind-brain identity. On the other hand, dualism or idealism (in one form or another) regard consciousness and mind as something other than the sole product of cerebral activity pointing at the ineffable, undefinable, and seemingly unphysical nature of our subjective qualitative experiences and its related mental dimension. Here, several neuroscientific findings are reviewed that question the idea that posits phenomenal experience as an emergent property of brain activity, and argue that the premise of material monism is based on a logical correlation-causation fallacy. While these (mostly ignored) findings, if considered separately from each other, could, in principle, be recast into a physicalist paradigm, once viewed from an integral perspective, they substantiate equally well an ontology that posits mind and consciousness as a primal phenomenon.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marco Masi
- Independent Researcher, Knetzgau, Germany
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5
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Fichtel C, Henke-von der Malsburg J, Kappeler PM. Cognitive performance is linked to fitness in a wild primate. SCIENCE ADVANCES 2023; 9:eadf9365. [PMID: 37436999 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adf9365] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/21/2022] [Accepted: 06/08/2023] [Indexed: 07/14/2023]
Abstract
Cognitive performance varies widely across animal species, but the processes underlying cognitive evolution remain poorly known. For cognitive abilities to evolve, performance must be linked to individual fitness benefits, but these links have been rarely studied in primates even though they exceed most other mammals in these traits. We subjected 198 wild gray mouse lemurs to four cognitive and two personality tests and subsequently monitored their survival in a mark-recapture study. Our study revealed that survival was predicted by individual variation in cognitive performance as well as body mass and exploration. Because cognitive performance covaried negatively with exploration, individuals gathering more accurate information enjoyed better cognitive performance and lived longer, but so did heavier and more explorative individuals. These effects may reflect a speed-accuracy trade-off, with alternative strategies yielding similar overall fitness. The observed intraspecific variation in selective benefits of cognitive performance, if heritable, can provide the basis for the evolution of cognitive abilities in members of our lineage.
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Affiliation(s)
- Claudia Fichtel
- Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology Unit, German Primate Center, Leibniz Institute for Primate Research, Göttingen, Germany
- Leibniz Science Campus "Primate Cognition", Göttingen 37077, Germany
| | - Johanna Henke-von der Malsburg
- Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology Unit, German Primate Center, Leibniz Institute for Primate Research, Göttingen, Germany
| | - Peter M Kappeler
- Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology Unit, German Primate Center, Leibniz Institute for Primate Research, Göttingen, Germany
- Department of Sociobiology/Anthropology, Johann-Friedrich-Blumenbach Institute for Zoology and Anthropology, University of Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany
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6
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van den Heuvel MP, Ardesch DJ, Scholtens LH, de Lange SC, van Haren NEM, Sommer IEC, Dannlowski U, Repple J, Preuss TM, Hopkins WD, Rilling JK. Human and chimpanzee shared and divergent neurobiological systems for general and specific cognitive brain functions. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2023; 120:e2218565120. [PMID: 37216540 PMCID: PMC10235977 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2218565120] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/31/2022] [Accepted: 04/03/2023] [Indexed: 05/24/2023] Open
Abstract
A long-standing topic of interest in human neurosciences is the understanding of the neurobiology underlying human cognition. Less commonly considered is to what extent such systems may be shared with other species. We examined individual variation in brain connectivity in the context of cognitive abilities in chimpanzees (n = 45) and humans in search of a conserved link between cognition and brain connectivity across the two species. Cognitive scores were assessed on a variety of behavioral tasks using chimpanzee- and human-specific cognitive test batteries, measuring aspects of cognition related to relational reasoning, processing speed, and problem solving in both species. We show that chimpanzees scoring higher on such cognitive skills display relatively strong connectivity among brain networks also associated with comparable cognitive abilities in the human group. We also identified divergence in brain networks that serve specialized functions across humans and chimpanzees, such as stronger language connectivity in humans and relatively more prominent connectivity between regions related to spatial working memory in chimpanzees. Our findings suggest that core neural systems of cognition may have evolved before the divergence of chimpanzees and humans, along with potential differential investments in other brain networks relating to specific functional specializations between the two species.
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Affiliation(s)
- Martijn P. van den Heuvel
- Department of Complex Traits Genetics, Center for Neurogenomics and Cognitive Research, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam Neuroscience, Amsterdam1081 HV, the Netherlands
- Department of Child Psychiatry, Amsterdam University Medical Center, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam Neuroscience, Amsterdam1081 HV, the Netherlands
| | - Dirk Jan Ardesch
- Department of Complex Traits Genetics, Center for Neurogenomics and Cognitive Research, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam Neuroscience, Amsterdam1081 HV, the Netherlands
| | - Lianne H. Scholtens
- Department of Complex Traits Genetics, Center for Neurogenomics and Cognitive Research, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam Neuroscience, Amsterdam1081 HV, the Netherlands
| | - Siemon C. de Lange
- Department of Complex Traits Genetics, Center for Neurogenomics and Cognitive Research, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam Neuroscience, Amsterdam1081 HV, the Netherlands
- Department of Sleep and Cognition, Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience, An institute of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, Amsterdam1105 BA, the Netherlands
| | - Neeltje E. M. van Haren
- Department of Psychiatry, Brain Center University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht University, Utrecht3584 CX, the Netherlands
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam3015 CE, the Netherlands
| | - Iris E. C. Sommer
- Department of Psychiatry, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen9700 RB, the Netherlands
| | - Udo Dannlowski
- Institute for Translational Psychiatry, University of Münster, Münster48149, Germany
| | - Jonathan Repple
- Department of Psychiatry, Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, University Hospital Frankfurt, Goethe University, Frankfurt60438, Germany
| | - Todd M. Preuss
- Emory National Primate Research Center, Emory University, Atlanta, GA30329
- Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA30307
| | - William D. Hopkins
- Department of Comparative Medicine, Michael E. Keeling Center for Comparative Medicine and Research, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Bastrop, TX77030
| | - James K. Rilling
- Emory National Primate Research Center, Emory University, Atlanta, GA30329
- Center for Translational Social Neuroscience, Emory University, Atlanta, GA30329
- Department of Anthropology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA30322
- Silvio O. Conte Center for Oxytocin and Social Cognition, Emory University, Atlanta, GA30322
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Emory University, Atlanta, GA30322
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7
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Abstract
Large brains support numerous cognitive adaptations and therefore may appear to be highly beneficial. Nonetheless, the high energetic costs of brain tissue may have prevented the evolution of large brains in many species. This problem may also have a developmental dimension: juveniles, with their immature and therefore poorly performing brains, would face a major energetic hurdle if they were to pay for the construction of their own brain, especially in larger-brained species. Here, we explore the possible role of parental provisioning for the development and evolution of adult brain size in birds. A comparative analysis of 1,176 bird species shows that various measures of parental provisioning (precocial vs. altricial state at hatching, relative egg mass, time spent provisioning the young) strongly predict relative brain size across species. The parental provisioning hypothesis also provides an explanation for the well-documented but so far unexplained pattern that altricial birds have larger brains than precocial ones. We therefore conclude that the evolution of parental provisioning allowed species to overcome the seemingly insurmountable energetic constraint on growing large brains, which in turn enabled bird species to increase survival and population stability. Because including adult eco- and socio-cognitive predictors only marginally improved the explanatory value of our models, these findings also suggest that the traditionally assessed cognitive abilities largely support successful parental provisioning. Our results therefore indicate that the cognitive adaptations underlying successful parental provisioning also provide the behavioral flexibility facilitating reproductive success and survival.
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8
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De Petrillo F, Nair P, Cantwell A, Rosati AG. The Evolution of Cognitive Control in Lemurs. Psychol Sci 2022; 33:1408-1422. [PMID: 35876730 PMCID: PMC10068506 DOI: 10.1177/09567976221082938] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Cognitive control, or executive function, is a key feature of human cognition, allowing individuals to plan, acquire new information, or adopt new strategies when the circumstances change. Yet it is unclear which factors promote the evolution of more sophisticated executive-function abilities such as those possessed by humans. Examining cognitive control in nonhuman primates, our closest relatives, can help to identify these evolutionary processes. Here, we developed a novel battery to experimentally measure multiple aspects of cognitive control in primates: temporal discounting, motor inhibition, short-term memory, reversal learning, novelty responses, and persistence. We tested lemur species with targeted, independent variation in both ecological and social features (ruffed lemurs, Coquerel's sifakas, ring-tailed lemurs, and mongoose lemurs; N = 39) and found that ecological rather than social characteristics best predicted patterns of cognitive control across these species. This highlights the importance of integrating cognitive data with species' natural history to understand the origins of complex cognition.
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Affiliation(s)
- Francesca De Petrillo
- Department of Psychology, University of Michigan.,School of Psychology, Newcastle University.,Biosciences Institute, Newcastle University
| | | | | | - Alexandra G Rosati
- Department of Psychology, University of Michigan.,Department of Anthropology, University of Michigan
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10
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Strepsirrhine movement and navigation: sense and sociality. Curr Opin Behav Sci 2022. [DOI: 10.1016/j.cobeha.2022.101133] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022]
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11
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Watkins B, de Guinea M, Poindexter SA, Ganzhorn JU, Donati G, Eppley TM. Routes matter: the effect of seasonality on bamboo lemur navigational strategies. Anim Behav 2022. [DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2022.01.019] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/30/2022]
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12
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Spezie G, Torti V, Bonadonna G, De Gregorio C, Valente D, Giacoma C, Gamba M. Evidence for acoustic discrimination in lemurs: a playback study on wild indris (Indri indri). Curr Zool 2022; 69:41-49. [PMID: 36974154 PMCID: PMC10039182 DOI: 10.1093/cz/zoac009] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/17/2021] [Accepted: 02/09/2022] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Abstract
Indris (Indri indri) are group-living lemurs which occupy stable territories over several years and perform remarkable long-distance vocal displays. Vocal exchanges between long-term territory neighbours may contribute to assessing reciprocal resource holding potentials, thus adaptively reducing the costs of territorial defence by limiting aggressive escalation. Previous work showed that indris' songs show distinctive acoustic features at individual and group level. However, the possibility that indris use such cues for individual or group-level recognition has never been investigated experimentally. We conducted a playback experiment to test whether indris discriminate between familiar and non-familiar songs. Our rationale lies in the hypothesis of the dear enemy phenomenon, which predicts that territorial animals will show reduced aggression levels towards familiar neighbours compared to novel rivals. We played back stimulus recordings to wild indris from their territory boundaries and examined their responses in terms of vocal and behavioural indicators of willingness to engage in a fight. In line with our predictions, focal animals responded more rapidly and approached more often the speaker in response to playback stimuli of non-familiar individuals than to stimuli of neighbouring groups. These results indicate that indris can discriminate between different classes of intruders based on distinctive acoustic features of their song choruses. We suggest that increased aggression directed towards unfamiliar intruders may be explained by higher threat levels associated with dispersal and group formation dynamics. We further discuss the relevance of these findings in a strepsirrhine primate model for comparative studies of vocal communication and sociality.
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Affiliation(s)
- Giovanni Spezie
- Konrad Lorenz Institute of Ethology, University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna, Austria
| | - Valeria Torti
- Department of Life Sciences and Systems Biology, School of Nature Sciences, University of Turin, Turin, Italy
| | - Giovanna Bonadonna
- Department of Life Sciences and Systems Biology, School of Nature Sciences, University of Turin, Turin, Italy
| | - Chiara De Gregorio
- Department of Life Sciences and Systems Biology, School of Nature Sciences, University of Turin, Turin, Italy
| | - Daria Valente
- Department of Life Sciences and Systems Biology, School of Nature Sciences, University of Turin, Turin, Italy
| | - Cristina Giacoma
- Department of Life Sciences and Systems Biology, School of Nature Sciences, University of Turin, Turin, Italy
| | - Marco Gamba
- Department of Life Sciences and Systems Biology, School of Nature Sciences, University of Turin, Turin, Italy
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Ho CLA, Fichtel C, Huber D. The gray mouse lemur (Microcebus murinus) as a model for early primate brain evolution. Curr Opin Neurobiol 2021; 71:92-99. [PMID: 34768148 DOI: 10.1016/j.conb.2021.09.012] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/07/2021] [Accepted: 09/16/2021] [Indexed: 12/23/2022]
Abstract
The gray mouse lemur (Microcebus murinus), one of the world's smallest primates, is thought to share a similar ecological niche and many anatomical traits with early euprimates. As a result, it has been considered a suitable model system for early primate physiology and behavior. Moreover, recent studies have demonstrated that mouse lemurs have comparable cognitive abilities and cortical functional organization as haplorhines. Finally, the small brain size of mouse lemurs provides us with actual lower limits for miniaturization of functional brain circuits within the primate clade. Considering its phylogenetic position and early primate-like traits, the mouse lemurs are a perfect model species to study the early evolution of primate brains.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chun Lum Andy Ho
- University of Geneva, Department of Basic Neurosciences, Rue Michel Servet 1, 1206 Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Claudia Fichtel
- Verhaltensökologie und Soziobiologie, Deutsches Primatenzentrum, Kellnerweg 4, 37077 Göttingen, Germany; Leibniz Science Campus 'Primate Cognition', 37077 Göttingen, Germany
| | - Daniel Huber
- University of Geneva, Department of Basic Neurosciences, Rue Michel Servet 1, 1206 Geneva, Switzerland.
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14
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Chaudron Y, Pifferi F, Aujard F. Overview of age-related changes in psychomotor and cognitive functions in a prosimian primate, the gray mouse lemur (Microcebus murinus): Recent advances in risk factors and antiaging interventions. Am J Primatol 2021; 83:e23337. [PMID: 34706117 DOI: 10.1002/ajp.23337] [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: 02/03/2021] [Revised: 09/23/2021] [Accepted: 09/25/2021] [Indexed: 01/13/2023]
Abstract
Aging is not homogeneous in humans and the determinants leading to differences between subjects are not fully understood. Impaired glucose homeostasis is a major risk factor for cognitive decline in middle-aged humans, pointing at the existence of early markers of unhealthy aging. The gray mouse lemur (Microcebus murinus), a small lemuriform Malagasy primate, shows relatively slow aging with decreased psychomotor capacities at middle-age (around 5-year old). In some cases (∼10%), it spontaneously leads to pathological aging. In this case, some age-related deficits, such as severe cognitive decline, brain atrophy, amyloidosis, and glucoregulatory imbalance are congruent with what is observed in humans. In the present review, we inventory the changes occurring in psychomotor and cognitive functions during healthy and pathological aging in mouse lemur. It includes a summary of the cerebral, metabolic, and cellular alterations that occur during aging and their relation to cognitive decline. As nutrition is one of the major nonpharmacological antiaging strategies with major potential effects on cognitive performances, we also discuss its role in brain functions and cognitive decline in this species. We show that the overall approach of aging studies in the gray mouse lemur offers promising ways of investigation for understanding, prevention, and treatments of pathological aging in humans.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yohann Chaudron
- UMR CNRS/MNHN 7179, Mécanismes Adaptatifs et Evolution, Brunoy, France
| | - Fabien Pifferi
- UMR CNRS/MNHN 7179, Mécanismes Adaptatifs et Evolution, Brunoy, France
| | - Fabienne Aujard
- UMR CNRS/MNHN 7179, Mécanismes Adaptatifs et Evolution, Brunoy, France
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15
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Woodley of Menie MA, Peñaherrera-Aguirre M. General Intelligence as a Major Source of Cognitive Variation Among Individuals of Three Species of Lemur, Uniting g with G. EVOLUTIONARY PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE 2021. [DOI: 10.1007/s40806-021-00304-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 03/26/2023]
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16
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Wong S, Bigman JS, Yopak KE, Dulvy NK. Gill surface area provides a clue for the respiratory basis of brain size in the blacktip shark (Carcharhinus limbatus). JOURNAL OF FISH BIOLOGY 2021; 99:990-998. [PMID: 34019307 DOI: 10.1111/jfb.14797] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/16/2021] [Revised: 05/10/2021] [Accepted: 05/17/2021] [Indexed: 06/12/2023]
Abstract
Brain size varies dramatically, both within and across species, and this variation is often believed to be the result of trade-offs between the cognitive benefits of having a large brain for a given body size and the energetic cost of sustaining neural tissue. One potential consequence of having a large brain is that organisms must also meet the associated high energetic demands. Thus, a key question is whether metabolic rate correlates with brain size. However, using metabolic rate to measure energetic demand yields a relatively instantaneous and dynamic measure of energy turnover, which is incompatible with the longer evolutionary timescale of changes in brain size within and across species. Morphological traits associated with oxygen consumption, specifically gill surface area, have been shown to be correlates of oxygen demand and energy use, and thus may serve as integrated correlates of these processes, allowing us to assess whether evolutionary changes in brain size correlate with changes in longer-term oxygen demand and energy use. We tested how brain size relates to gill surface area in the blacktip shark Carcharhinus limbatus. First, we examined whether the allometric slope of brain mass (i.e., the rate that brain mass changes with body mass) is lower than the allometric slope of gill surface area across ontogeny. Second, we tested whether gill surface area explains variation in brain mass, after accounting for the effects of body mass on brain mass. We found that brain mass and gill surface area both had positive allometric slopes, with larger individuals having both larger brains and larger gill surface areas compared to smaller individuals. However, the allometric slope of brain mass was lower than the allometric slope of gill surface area, consistent with our prediction that the allometric slope of gill surface area could pose an upper limit to the allometric slope of brain mass. Finally, after accounting for body mass, individuals with larger brains tended to have larger gill surface areas. Together, our results provide clues as to how fishes may evolve and maintain large brains despite their high energetic cost, suggesting that C. limbatus individuals with a large gill surface area for their body mass may be able to support a higher energetic turnover, and, in turn, a larger brain for their body mass.
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Affiliation(s)
- Serena Wong
- Earth to Ocean Research Group, Department of Biological Sciences, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada
| | - Jennifer S Bigman
- Earth to Ocean Research Group, Department of Biological Sciences, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada
| | - Kara E Yopak
- Department of Biology and Marine Biology, University of North Carolina, Wilmington, North Carolina, USA
| | - Nicholas K Dulvy
- Earth to Ocean Research Group, Department of Biological Sciences, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada
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17
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Hartje V, Illemann MJ, Schmidtke D. Motion cues increase focused attention towards purely visual stimuli in a nocturnal primate and drive stimulus interaction and approach/avoidance in a context-dependent manner. Am J Primatol 2021; 83:e23286. [PMID: 34169554 DOI: 10.1002/ajp.23286] [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: 10/21/2020] [Revised: 04/06/2021] [Accepted: 05/14/2021] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Abstract
Visual information is of pivotal ecological importance to monkeys, apes, and humans, whereas its role in nocturnal primate ecology is less well understood. We explored how purely visual information modulates the behavior of a nocturnal primate. Abstract (shape), photographic (shape + detail), or video (shape + detail + motion) representations of arthropod prey (Zophobas morio; food context) or a male conspecific (social context) were systematically presented to 22 individuals of the gray mouse lemur (Microcebus murinus) using a touchscreen. We assessed stimulus-directed touch interactions, durations of focused visual attention towards the different stimuli, and durations spent in the half of the setup-chamber more distant to the touchscreen (as quantification of approach/avoidance). Focused attention towards the stimulus generally increased from abstract and photographic to videographic stimuli. For the food context, indications for a parallel increase in stimulus-directed touch interactions from abstract stimulus to video were found. Approach/avoidance was independent of the stimulus type within both contexts. A comparison between the contexts under the video condition revealed higher durations of visual attention and lower stimulus avoidance in the food context compared to the social context. The number of touch interactions with the video stimulus was not generally context-dependent, but context-dependency related to sex: In the food context, animals with high and low numbers of touch interactions were equally distributed across sexes. In the social context, females showed the highest numbers of touch interactions. Numbers in males declined compared to the food context. Our results demonstrate for the first time that purely visual information modulates mouse lemur behavior and focused attention in a content- and context-specific manner, suggesting that vision is of high importance for the ecology of these nocturnal primates. The findings emphasize the need for further vision-based experiments to gain deeper insight into the evolution of visual information processing and cognition in nocturnal primates.
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Affiliation(s)
- Valeria Hartje
- Institute of Zoology, University of Veterinary Medicine, Hannover, Germany
| | - Michele J Illemann
- Institute of Zoology, University of Veterinary Medicine, Hannover, Germany
| | - Daniel Schmidtke
- Institute of Zoology, University of Veterinary Medicine, Hannover, Germany
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Linking ecology and cognition: does ecological specialisation predict cognitive test performance? Behav Ecol Sociobiol 2020. [DOI: 10.1007/s00265-020-02923-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/06/2023]
Abstract
AbstractVariation in cognitive abilities is thought to be linked to variation in brain size, which varies across species with either social factors (Social Intelligence Hypothesis) or ecological challenges (Ecological Intelligence Hypothesis). However, the nature of the ecological processes invoked by the Ecological Intelligence Hypothesis, like adaptations to certain habitat characteristics or dietary requirements, remains relatively poorly known. Here, we review comparative studies that experimentally investigated interspecific variation in cognitive performance in relation to a species’ degree of ecological specialisation. Overall, the relevant literature was biased towards studies of mammals and birds as well as studies focusing on ecological challenges related to diet. We separated ecological challenges into those related to searching for food, accessing a food item and memorising food locations. We found interspecific variation in cognitive performance that can be explained by adaptations to different foraging styles. Species-specific adaptations to certain ecological conditions, like food patch distribution, characteristics of food items or seasonality also broadly predicted variation in cognitive abilities. A species’ innovative problem-solving and spatial processing ability, for example, could be explained by its use of specific foraging techniques or search strategies, respectively. Further, habitat generalists were more likely to outperform habitat specialists. Hence, we found evidence that ecological adaptations and cognitive performance are linked and that the classification concept of ecological specialisation can explain variation in cognitive performance only with regard to habitat, but not dietary specialisation.
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