scholarly journals Integrative Comparative Cognition: Can Neurobiology and Neurogenomics Inform Comparative Analyses of Cognitive Phenotype?

2020 ◽  
Vol 60 (4) ◽  
pp. 925-928
Author(s):  
Sabrina S Burmeister ◽  
Yuxiang Liu
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Molecular Mechanisms ◽  
Comparative Cognition ◽  
Parallel Evolution ◽  
Difficult Problem ◽  
Cognitive Phenotype ◽  
Molecular Approaches ◽  
Patterns And Processes

Synopsis A long-standing question in animal behavior is what are the patterns and processes that shape the evolution of cognition? One effective way to address this question is to study cognitive abilities in a broad spectrum of animals. While comparative psychologists have traditionally focused on a narrow range of organisms, today they may work with any number of species, from frogs to birds or bees. This broader range of study species has greatly enriched our understanding of the diversity of cognitive processes among animals. Yet, this diversity has highlighted the fundamental challenge of comparing cognitive processes across animals. An analysis of the neural and molecular mechanisms of cognition may be necessary to solve this problem. The goal of our symposium was to bring together speakers studying a range of species to gain a broadly integrative perspective on cognition while at the same time considering the potentially important role of neurobiology and genomics in addressing the difficult problem of comparing cognition across species. For example, work by MaBouDi et al. indicates that neural constraints on computing power may impact the cognitive processes underlying numerical discrimination in bees. A presentation by Lara LaDage demonstrated how neurobiology can be used to better understand cognition and its evolution in reptiles while Edwards et al. identify the cerebellum as potentially important in the performance of the complex process of nest building. We see that molecular approaches highlight the contributions of the prefrontal cortex and hippocampus to cognitive phenotype across vertebrates while, at the same time, identifying the genes and cellular processes that may contribute to evolution of cognition. The potentially important role of neurogenesis and synaptic plasticity emerge clearly from such studies. Still unanswered is the question of whether molecular tools will contribute to our ability to discriminate convergent/parallel evolution from homology in the evolution of cognitive phenotype.

scholarly journals What is comparable in comparative cognition?

2012 ◽  
Vol 367 (1603) ◽  
pp. 2677-2685 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lars Chittka ◽  
Stephen J. Rossiter ◽  
Peter Skorupski ◽  
Chrisantha Fernando
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Functions ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Comparative Cognition ◽  
Molecular Genetic ◽  
Parallel Evolution ◽  
Cognitive Capacity ◽  
Genetic Changes ◽  
Hereditary Variation ◽  
The Face ◽  
Cognitive Traits

To understand how complex, or ‘advanced’ various forms of cognition are, and to compare them between species for evolutionary studies, we need to understand the diversity of neural–computational mechanisms that may be involved, and to identify the genetic changes that are necessary to mediate changes in cognitive functions. The same overt cognitive capacity might be mediated by entirely different neural circuitries in different species, with a many-to-one mapping between behavioural routines, computations and their neural implementations. Comparative behavioural research needs to be complemented with a bottom-up approach in which neurobiological and molecular-genetic analyses allow pinpointing of underlying neural and genetic bases that constrain cognitive variation. Often, only very minor differences in circuitry might be needed to generate major shifts in cognitive functions and the possibility that cognitive traits arise by convergence or parallel evolution needs to be taken seriously. Hereditary variation in cognitive traits between individuals of a species might be extensive, and selection experiments on cognitive traits might be a useful avenue to explore how rapidly changes in cognitive abilities occur in the face of pertinent selection pressures.

scholarly journals Should dispersers be fast learners? Modelling the role of cognition in dispersal syndromes

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jannis Liedtke ◽  
Lutz Fromhage
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Developmental Plasticity ◽  
Complex Relationship ◽  
Learning Abilities ◽  
Local Conditions ◽  
Cognitive Phenotype ◽  
Dispersal Syndromes

Both cognitive abilities and dispersal tendencies can vary strongly between individuals. Since cognitive abilities may help dealing with unknown circumstances it is conceivable that dispersers may rely more heavily on learning abilities than residents. However, cognitive abilities are costly and leaving a familiar place might result in losing the advantage of having learned to deal with local conditions. Thus, individuals which invested in learning to cope with local conditions may be more reluctant to leave their natal place. In order to disentangle the complex relationship between dispersal and learning abilities we implemented individual-based simulations. By allowing for developmental plasticity, individuals could either develop a ‘resident´ or ‘dispersal´ cognitive phenotype. In line with our expectations, the correlation between learning abilities and dispersal could take any direction, depending how much time individuals had to recoup their investment in cognition. Both, longevity and the timing of dispersal within lifecycles determine the time individuals have to recoup that investment and thus crucially influence this correlation. We therefore suggest that species´ life-history will strongly impact the expected cognitive abilities of dispersers, relative to their resident conspecifics, and that cognitive abilities might be an integral part of dispersal syndromes.

scholarly journals Pharmacological evidence is consistent with a prominent role of spatial memory in complex navigation

2016 ◽  
Vol 283 (1824) ◽  
pp. 20152548 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy C. Roth ◽  
Aaron R. Krochmal
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Memory ◽  
Spatial Cognition ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Muscarinic Acetylcholine Receptor ◽  
Free Living ◽  
Naturally Occurring ◽  
Spatial Environment ◽  
Navigation Strategies

The ability to learn about the spatial environment plays an important role in navigation, migration, dispersal, and foraging. However, our understanding of both the role of cognition in the development of navigation strategies and the mechanisms underlying these strategies is limited. We tested the hypothesis that complex navigation is facilitated by spatial memory in a population of Chrysemys picta that navigate with extreme precision (±3.5 m) using specific routes that must be learned prior to age three. We used scopolamine, a muscarinic acetylcholine receptor antagonist, to manipulate the cognitive spatial abilities of free-living turtles during naturally occurring overland movements. Experienced adults treated with scopolamine diverted markedly from their precise navigation routes. Naive juveniles lacking experience (and memory) were not affected by scopolamine, and thereby served as controls for perceptual or non-spatial cognitive processes associated with navigation. Further, neither adult nor juvenile movement was affected by methylscopolamine, a form of scopolamine that does not cross the blood–brain barrier, a control for the peripheral effects of scopolamine. Together, these results are consistent with a role of spatial cognition in complex navigation and highlight a cellular mechanism that might underlie spatial cognition. Overall, our findings expand our understanding of the development of complex cognitive abilities of vertebrates and the neurological mechanisms of navigation.

scholarly journals A Role of Cytokine Gene Polymorphisms in Cognitive Functioning

Folia Medica ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 60 (2) ◽  
pp. 191-199 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anastasiya G. Trenova ◽  
Georgi S. Slavov ◽  
Maria G. Manova ◽  
Lyuba D. Miteva ◽  
Spaska A. Stanilova
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Functioning ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Gene Polymorphisms ◽  
Molecular Mechanisms ◽  
Relevant Literature ◽  
Cognitive Status ◽  
Cytokine Gene ◽  
Cytokine Genes ◽  
Cytokine Gene Polymorphisms

Abstract The changes in cognitive functions that occur with aging and in various pathological conditions are a subject of growing interest. Experimental and clinical data justify the hypothesis about the influence the immune system exerts on cognitive processes. The balance between pro-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory cytokines has been established as a necessary factor for normal cognitive functioning. Cytokine production is under strong genetic control and various single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in cytokine genes have been described. As cytokine SNPs have been demonstrated to affect the gene expression or the functional activity of the immune protein this logically led to the suggestion about the role of these polymorphisms in cognitive functioning. Studies exploring the association between different genetic variants of cytokine gene polymorphisms and cognitive abilities in healthy subjects and in demented patients show divergent results. The review of relevant literature suggests that SNPs implement their effect on cognition in large interactions with each other, as well as with many other factors, some of which still remain to be identified. This article summarizes the contemporary knowledge about the correlations between SNPs in cytokine genes and cognitive status in humans. Further research is needed to determine the precise role and the molecular mechanisms of action of the SNPs in cognitive processes.

scholarly journals Transcriptome dynamics in developing leaves from C3 and C4Flaveria species reveal determinants of Kranz anatomy

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kumari Billakurthi ◽  
Thomas J. Wrobel ◽  
Andrea Bräutigam ◽  
Andreas P.M. Weber ◽  
Peter Westhoff ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Molecular Mechanisms ◽  
Parallel Evolution ◽  
Bundle Sheath ◽  
Evolutionary Mechanisms ◽  
Kranz Anatomy ◽  
Bundle Sheath Cells ◽  
Whole Transcriptome Sequencing ◽  
Whole Transcriptome ◽  
Non Negative Matrix Factorization

AbstractC4 species have evolved more than 60 times independently from C3 ancestors. This multiple and parallel evolution of the complex C4 trait indicates common underlying evolutionary mechanisms that might be identified by comparative analysis of closely related C3 and C4 species. Efficient C4 function depends on a distinctive leaf anatomy that is characterized by enlarged, chloroplast rich bundle sheath cells and a narrow vein spacing. To elucidate molecular mechanisms generating this so called Kranz anatomy, we analyzed a developmental series of leaves from the C4 plant Flaveria bidentis and the closely related C3 species Flaveria robusta using leaf clearing and whole transcriptome sequencing. Applying non-negative matrix factorization on the data identified four different zones with distinct transcriptome patterns in growing leaves of both species. Comparing these transcriptome patterns revealed an important role of auxin metabolism and especially auxin homeostasis for establishing the high vein density typical for C4 leaves.

Methods in cognitive linguistics

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 34-36
Author(s):  
Muzaffar Muradovich Rakhimov
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Cognitive Linguistics ◽  
Human Experience ◽  
The World

Cognitive linguistics is a direction in linguistics that explores the problems of the correlation of language and consciousness, the role of language in the conceptualization and categorization of the world, in cognitive processes and generalization of human experience, the connection of individual cognitive abilities of a person with the language and the forms of their interaction.

The role of cognitive aptitudes for explicit language learning in the relative effects of explicit and implicit feedback

2015 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 147-161 ◽  
Author(s):  
YUCEL YILMAZ ◽  
GISELA GRANENA
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Corrective Feedback ◽  
Language Aptitude ◽  
Oral Production ◽  
Indefinite Article ◽  
Group Assignment ◽  
Posttest Performance

This study investigated the extent to which cognitive abilities that involve explicit cognitive processes (i.e., explicit language aptitude) are related to second language (L2) learning outcomes under two corrective feedback conditions. The study followed a pretest-posttest-delayed posttest experimental design. Forty-eight L2 learners of English carried out three oral production tasks, in which their errors on the indefinite article were treated according to their group assignment (i.e., explicit, implicit, and no-feedback). A set of controlled oral production tests was administered as pretest and posttest. Explicit language aptitude was measured using three subtests from the LLAMA Language Aptitude Test battery (Meara, 2005). Results showed that explicit language aptitude predicted immediate posttest performance only under the explicit feedback condition, suggesting that this type of feedback requires mental processes that are facilitated by explicit cognitive abilities and that its short-term effectiveness is not the same for learners with different aptitude levels.

Elaborating the role of reflection and individual differences in the study of folk-economic beliefs

2018 ◽  
Vol 41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin Arceneaux
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Individual Differences ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Evolutionary History ◽  
Behavioral Responses ◽  
History Of ◽  
Economic Beliefs

AbstractIntuitions guide decision-making, and looking to the evolutionary history of humans illuminates why some behavioral responses are more intuitive than others. Yet a place remains for cognitive processes to second-guess intuitive responses – that is, to be reflective – and individual differences abound in automatic, intuitive processing as well.

Refining our understanding of the “elephant in the room”

2020 ◽  
Vol 43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Whiten
Keyword(s):  
Social Cognition ◽  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Critical Factors ◽  
Technological Culture

Abstract The authors do the field of cultural evolution a service by exploring the role of non-social cognition in human cumulative technological culture, truly neglected in comparison with socio-cognitive abilities frequently assumed to be the primary drivers. Some specifics of their delineation of the critical factors are problematic, however. I highlight recent chimpanzee–human comparative findings that should help refine such analyses.

How do histone modifications contribute to transgenerational epigenetic inheritance in C. elegans?

2020 ◽  
Vol 48 (3) ◽  
pp. 1019-1034 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachel M. Woodhouse ◽  
Alyson Ashe
Keyword(s):  
Histone Modifications ◽  
Molecular Mechanisms ◽  
Epigenetic Inheritance ◽  
Nematode Caenorhabditis Elegans ◽  
Histone Methyltransferases ◽  
Transgenerational Epigenetic Inheritance ◽  
C Elegans ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Gene Regulatory

Gene regulatory information can be inherited between generations in a phenomenon termed transgenerational epigenetic inheritance (TEI). While examples of TEI in many animals accumulate, the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans has proven particularly useful in investigating the underlying molecular mechanisms of this phenomenon. In C. elegans and other animals, the modification of histone proteins has emerged as a potential carrier and effector of transgenerational epigenetic information. In this review, we explore the contribution of histone modifications to TEI in C. elegans. We describe the role of repressive histone marks, histone methyltransferases, and associated chromatin factors in heritable gene silencing, and discuss recent developments and unanswered questions in how these factors integrate with other known TEI mechanisms. We also review the transgenerational effects of the manipulation of histone modifications on germline health and longevity.

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