scholarly journals Mapping behavioural evolution onto brain evolution: the strategic roles of conserved organization in individuals and species

2011 ◽  
Vol 366 (1574) ◽  
pp. 2111-2123 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara L. Finlay ◽  
Flora Hinz ◽  
Richard B. Darlington
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Communication Systems ◽  
Multiple Scales ◽  
Brain Evolution ◽  
Task Demands ◽  
Functional Neuroanatomy ◽  
Component Structure ◽  
Specific Behaviour ◽  
The Central Nervous System ◽  
Species Specific

The pattern of individual variation in brain component structure in pigs, minks and laboratory mice is very similar to variation across species in the same components, at a reduced scale. This conserved pattern of allometric scaling resembles robotic architectures designed to be robust to changes in computing power and task demands, and may reflect the mechanism by which both growing and evolving brains defend basic sensory, motor and homeostatic functions at multiple scales. Conserved scaling rules also have implications for species-specific sensory and social communication systems, motor competencies and cognitive abilities. The role of relative changes in neuron number in the central nervous system in producing species-specific behaviour is thus highly constrained, while changes in the sensory and motor periphery, and in motivational and attentional systems increase in probability as the principal loci producing important changes in functional neuroanatomy between species. By their nature, these loci require renewed attention to development and life history in the initial organization and production of species-specific behavioural abilities.

scholarly journals Self-care tooling innovation in a disabled kea (Nestor notabilis)

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Amalia P. M. Bastos ◽  
Kata Horváth ◽  
Jonathan L. Webb ◽  
Patrick M. Wood ◽  
Alex H. Taylor
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Self Care ◽  
Bird Species ◽  
Specific Behaviour ◽  
In The Wild ◽  
Species Specific ◽  
Lines Of Evidence

AbstractTooling is associated with complex cognitive abilities, occurring most regularly in large-brained mammals and birds. Among birds, self-care tooling is seemingly rare in the wild, despite several anecdotal reports of this behaviour in captive parrots. Here, we show that Bruce, a disabled parrot lacking his top mandible, deliberately uses pebbles to preen himself. Evidence for this behaviour comes from five lines of evidence: (i) in over 90% of instances where Bruce picked up a pebble, he then used it to preen; (ii) in 95% of instances where Bruce dropped a pebble, he retrieved this pebble, or replaced it, in order to resume preening; (iii) Bruce selected pebbles of a specific size for preening rather than randomly sampling available pebbles in his environment; (iv) no other kea in his environment used pebbles for preening; and (v) when other individuals did interact with stones, they used stones of different sizes to those Bruce preened with. Our study provides novel and empirical evidence for deliberate self-care tooling in a bird species where tooling is not a species-specific behaviour. It also supports claims that tooling can be innovated based on ecological necessity by species with sufficiently domain-general cognition.

Species specific behaviour and catchability of gadoid fish to floated and bottom set pots

2016 ◽  
Vol 74 (3) ◽  
pp. 769-779 ◽  
Author(s):  
Neil Anders ◽  
Anders Fernö ◽  
Odd-Børre Humborstad ◽  
Svein Løkkeborg ◽  
Anne Christine Utne-Palm
Keyword(s):  
Water Column ◽  
Gadus Morhua ◽  
Capture Efficiency ◽  
Escape Rate ◽  
Melanogrammus Aeglefinus ◽  
Encounter Rate ◽  
Specific Behaviour ◽  
Upstream Direction ◽  
Species Specific ◽  
Specific Food

To increase our understanding of the interaction between fish and baited fishing gear we quantitatively described the behaviour of cod (Gadus morhua), saithe (Pollachius virens), and haddock (Melanogrammus aeglefinus) to baited pots in a fjord in northern Norway. Detailed video analyses were made to describe species specific responses and examine the effect of lifting the pot off the bottom. The majority of both cod and saithe approached the pots in an upstream direction, and fish approached floated pots higher in the water column than bottom set pots. Cod tended to approach a pot along the seabed and were more likely to encounter the bottom set pot than the floated pot, whereas saithe more often approached in the water column. The capture efficiency was low for all species, but cod were more likely to be caught than saithe and haddock. Cod showed a high encounter rate, low entrance rate and high escape rate. For saithe, a low encounter rate was the chief factor limiting capture efficiency. The observed differences between cod and saithe were explained by species-specific food-search strategies. No difference in entrance rate, escape rate or catch efficiency between the two pot types were found.

scholarly journals Features of formation of the functional state of the central nervous system and cognitive abilities in children and adolescents of the school age

2020 ◽  
pp. 76-79
Author(s):  
N. P. Setko ◽  
E. V. Bulycheva ◽  
O. M. Zhdanova
Keyword(s):  
Central Nervous System ◽  
Nervous System ◽  
General Education ◽  
Children And Adolescents ◽  
Functional State ◽  
Processing Speed ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Cognitive Activity ◽  
School Age ◽  
The Central Nervous System

Objective: The objective is to determine the features of formation of the functional state of the central nervous system (CNS) and cognitive abilities in children and adolescents of the school age.Methods: The study included 300 school children of general education institution of Orenburg. Functional state of CNS was evaluated with variational chronoreflexometry. Cognitive availabilities have been studied with proof-reading test, Landolt ring.Results: From 7–11 y.o. to 16–17 y.o., there was an increase by 1.5 times in parameters of CNS functional state. Students aged from 7–11 y.o. by 12–15 y.o. demonstrated decrease in processing speed by 1.5 times due to increase of cognitive activity to 1.8 times. From 12–15 y.o. by 16–17 y.o., on the contrary, there was an increase of information processing speed by 1.3 times and decrease of cognitive activity by 2.9 times.Conclusions: The detected features of formation of CNS functional state and cognitive abilities in children and adolescents can be taken into account in when organizing personality-oriented training in educational institutions in order to maintain and increase the level of mental performance and academic performance of students. 

scholarly journals Emerging Roles of Long Non-Coding RNAs as Drivers of Brain Evolution

Cells ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (11) ◽  
pp. 1399 ◽  
Author(s):  
Geraldine Zimmer-Bensch
Keyword(s):  
Human Brain ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Brain Size ◽  
Expression Patterns ◽  
Brain Evolution ◽  
Relative Volume ◽  
Structural Reorganization ◽  
Protein Coding ◽  
Human Brain Evolution ◽  
Transcriptional Regulatory

Mammalian genomes encode tens of thousands of long-noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs), which are capable of interactions with DNA, RNA and protein molecules, thereby enabling a variety of transcriptional and post-transcriptional regulatory activities. Strikingly, about 40% of lncRNAs are expressed specifically in the brain with precisely regulated temporal and spatial expression patterns. In stark contrast to the highly conserved repertoire of protein-coding genes, thousands of lncRNAs have newly appeared during primate nervous system evolution with hundreds of human-specific lncRNAs. Their evolvable nature and the myriad of potential functions make lncRNAs ideal candidates for drivers of human brain evolution. The human brain displays the largest relative volume of any animal species and the most remarkable cognitive abilities. In addition to brain size, structural reorganization and adaptive changes represent crucial hallmarks of human brain evolution. lncRNAs are increasingly reported to be involved in neurodevelopmental processes suggested to underlie human brain evolution, including proliferation, neurite outgrowth and synaptogenesis, as well as in neuroplasticity. Hence, evolutionary human brain adaptations are proposed to be essentially driven by lncRNAs, which will be discussed in this review.

scholarly journals miR-132 regulates the expression of synaptic proteins in APP/PS1 transgenic mice through C1q

2019 ◽  
Vol 63 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nan Xu ◽  
Ang-Di Li ◽  
Li-Li Ji ◽  
Yao Ye ◽  
Zhen-Yu Wang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Transgenic Mice ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Early Stage ◽  
Amyloid Β ◽  
In Silico Analysis ◽  
Synaptic Proteins ◽  
Downstream Target ◽  
Key Factor ◽  
The Central Nervous System ◽  
Synapse Degeneration

Cognitive impairment in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is usually accompanied by synaptic loss in both the hippocampus and neocortex. In the early stage of AD, amyloid β-induced synapse changes is the main reason, while in the later stage, the accumulation of Tau protein promotes synapse degeneration as the key factor leading to dementia. MicroRNA (miRNA) is closely related to the expression changes of many AD-related genes. One of the most abundant brain-enriched miRNAs is miR-132, which has been shown to regulate both neuron morphogenesis and plasticity. It has been reported that miR-132 is significantly reduced in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients. Genetic deletion of miR-132 in mice promotes Aβ deposition, leading to impaired memory and enhanced Tau pathology, but how the miRNA-mediated gene expression dysregulation contributes to AD pathology remains unclear. Here we found the possible downstream target of miR-132 by in silico analysis, namely C1q. C1q is the primary protein of classical complement cascade, which is highly expressed in the synaptic regions of the central nervous system in Alzheimer’s patients. However, it is not clear whether miR-132 plays a role in AD through regulating C1q. To address this question, the APP/PS1 transgenic mice were transfected with miR-132 and given C1 inhibitors. Behavior tests were conducted to assess memory and cognitive abilities seven days after administration. In addition, we analyzed the expression of PSD95, Synapsin-1 and phosphorylated (p)-Synapsin. We found that the expression levels of the synaptic proteins treated with miR-132 or C1INH were significantly increased compared with the AD group. Further RT-qPCR result suggested that miR-132 might regulate C1q expression in AD.

scholarly journals Functional mastery of percussive technology in nut-cracking and stone-flaking actions: experimental comparison and implications for the evolution of the human brain

2012 ◽  
Vol 367 (1585) ◽  
pp. 59-74 ◽  
Author(s):  
Blandine Bril ◽  
Jeroen Smaers ◽  
James Steele ◽  
Robert Rein ◽  
Tetsushi Nonaka ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Skill Acquisition ◽  
Tool Use ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Brain Evolution ◽  
Experimental Comparison ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Research Areas ◽  
Nut Cracking ◽  
Percussive Technology ◽  
Recent Experimental Work

Various authors have suggested behavioural similarities between tool use in early hominins and chimpanzee nut cracking, where nut cracking might be interpreted as a precursor of more complex stone flaking. In this paper, we bring together and review two separate strands of research on chimpanzee and human tool use and cognitive abilities. Firstly, and in the greatest detail, we review our recent experimental work on behavioural organization and skill acquisition in nut-cracking and stone-knapping tasks, highlighting similarities and differences between the two tasks that may be informative for the interpretation of stone tools in the early archaeological record. Secondly, and more briefly, we outline a model of the comparative neuropsychology of primate tool use and discuss recent descriptive anatomical and statistical analyses of anthropoid primate brain evolution, focusing on cortico-cerebellar systems. By juxtaposing these two strands of research, we are able to identify unsolved problems that can usefully be addressed by future research in each of these two research areas.

scholarly journals Preferences for nesting material as environmental enrichment for laboratory mice

1997 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 133-143 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. A. Van de Weerd ◽  
P. L. P. Van Loo ◽  
L. F. M. Van Zutphen ◽  
J. M. Koolhaas ◽  
V. Baumans
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Enrichment ◽  
Preference Test ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Psychological Needs ◽  
Laboratory Animals ◽  
Laboratory Mice ◽  
Simple Method ◽  
Specific Behaviour ◽  
Nesting Material ◽  
Species Specific

Behavioural and psychological needs of laboratory animals generally cannot adequately be met in standard laboratory cages. Environmental enrichment, which provides a more structured environment can enhance the well-being of laboratory animals. They may perform more of their species-specific behaviour and may control their environment in a better way. An easily applicable form of enrichment for laboratory mice is nesting material. Six different types of nesting materials were evaluated in a preference test with male and female animals of two strains (C57BL/6J or BALB/c, n=48). No significant differences in preference were found between the strains or between the sexes. All mice showed a clear preference for cages with tissues or towels as compared to paper strips or no nesting material, and for cages with cotton string or wood-wool as compared to wood shavings or no nesting material. Paper-derived materials were preferred over wood-derived materials, although the results also suggest that the nature (paper or wood) of the nesting material is less important than its structure, which determines the nestability of the material. Nesting material may be a relatively simple method to contribute to the well-being of laboratory mice.

scholarly journals Emerging Roles of Long Non-Coding RNAs as Drivers of Brain Evolution

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Geraldine Zimmer-Bensch
Keyword(s):  
Human Brain ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Brain Size ◽  
Expression Patterns ◽  
Brain Evolution ◽  
Relative Volume ◽  
Structural Reorganization ◽  
Protein Coding ◽  
Human Brain Evolution ◽  
Transcriptional Regulatory

Mammalian genomes encode tens of thousands of long-noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs), which are capable of interactions with DNA, RNA and protein molecules, thereby enabling a variety of transcriptional and post-transcriptional regulatory activities. Strikingly, about 40% of lncRNAs are expressed specifically in the brain in precisely regulated temporal and spatial expression patterns. In stark contrast to the highly conserved repertoire of protein-coding genes, thousands of new lncRNAs have appeared during primate nervous system evolution with hundreds of human-specific lncRNAs. Their evolvable nature and the myriad of potential functions make lncRNAs ideal candidates for drivers of human brain evolution. The human brain displays the largest relative volume of any animal species and the most remarkable cognitive abilities. In addition to brain size, structural reorganization and adaptive changes represent crucial hallmarks of human brain evolution. LncRNAs are increasingly reported to be involved in neurodevelopmental processes including proliferation, neurite outgrowth and synaptogenesis, as well as in neuroplasticity, suggested to underlie human brain evolution. Hence, evolutionary human brain adaptations are proposed to be essentially driven by lncRNAs, which will be discussed in this review.

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