scholarly journals Embodied cognitive evolution and the cerebellum

2012 ◽  
Vol 367 (1599) ◽  
pp. 2097-2107 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert A. Barton
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Neuroscience ◽  
Executive Control ◽  
General Pattern ◽  
Brain Evolution ◽  
Cognitive Evolution ◽  
Clear Separation ◽  
Relative Expansion ◽  
Distinct Process ◽  
Neural Substrate ◽  
Foraging Skills

Much attention has focused on the dramatic expansion of the forebrain, particularly the neocortex, as the neural substrate of cognitive evolution. However, though relatively small, the cerebellum contains about four times more neurons than the neocortex. I show that commonly used comparative measures such as neocortex ratio underestimate the contribution of the cerebellum to brain evolution. Once differences in the scaling of connectivity in neocortex and cerebellum are accounted for, a marked and general pattern of correlated evolution of the two structures is apparent. One deviation from this general pattern is a relative expansion of the cerebellum in apes and other extractive foragers. The confluence of these comparative patterns, studies of ape foraging skills and social learning, and recent evidence on the cognitive neuroscience of the cerebellum, suggest an important role for the cerebellum in the evolution of the capacity for planning, execution and understanding of complex behavioural sequences—including tool use and language. There is no clear separation between sensory–motor and cognitive specializations underpinning such skills, undermining the notion of executive control as a distinct process. Instead, I argue that cognitive evolution is most effectively understood as the elaboration of specialized systems for embodied adaptive control.

Cognitive control in altruism and self-control: A social cognitive neuroscience perspective

2002 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 260-260
Author(s):  
Jeremy R. Gray ◽  
Todd S. Braver
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Cognitive Neuroscience ◽  
Executive Control ◽  
Dual Task ◽  
Social Cognitive ◽  
Self Control ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Social Cognitive Neuroscience ◽  
The Face

The primrose path and prisoner's dilemma paradigms may require cognitive (executive) control: The active maintenance of context representations in lateral prefrontal cortex to provide top-down support for specific behaviors in the face of short delays or stronger response tendencies. This perspective suggests further tests of whether altruism is a type of self-control, including brain imaging, induced affect, and dual-task studies.

scholarly journals Human Empathy Through the Lens of Social Neuroscience

2006 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 1146-1163 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean Decety ◽  
Claus Lamm
Keyword(s):  
Information Processing ◽  
Cognitive Neuroscience ◽  
Executive Control ◽  
Perspective Taking ◽  
Functional Neuroimaging ◽  
Social Neuroscience ◽  
Neural Mechanisms ◽  
The Self ◽  
Neural Systems

Empathy is the ability to experience and understand what others feel without confusion between oneself and others. Knowing what someone else is feeling plays a fundamental role in interpersonal interactions. In this paper, we articulate evidence from social psychology and cognitive neuroscience, and argue that empathy involves both emotion sharing (bottom-up information processing) and executive control to regulate and modulate this experience (top-down information processing), underpinned by specific and interacting neural systems. Furthermore, awareness of a distinction between the experiences of the self and others constitutes a crucial aspect of empathy. We discuss data from recent behavioral and functional neuroimaging studies with an emphasis on the perception of pain in others, and highlight the role of different neural mechanisms that underpin the experience of empathy, including emotion sharing, perspective taking, and emotion regulation.

scholarly journals The bilingualism wars: Is the bilingual advantage out of (executive) control?

2019 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 26-33
Author(s):  
María Fernández-López ◽  
Manuel Perea
Keyword(s):  
Executive Function ◽  
Cognitive Neuroscience ◽  
Executive Control ◽  
Scientific Community ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Controversial Issues ◽  
Daily Lives ◽  
Bilingual Advantage ◽  
Linguistic Representations ◽  
Two Sides

AbstractWhether bilingualism has an effect on the executive function of non-verbal representations is probably one of the most controversial issues in cognitive psychology and cognitive neuroscience. As bilinguals have to alternate between two languages that compete for selection in their daily lives, they make use of selection, inhibition, and monitoring (i.e., components of executive function) more often than monolinguals. Thus, it would not be surprising that these highly trained abilities at selecting and monitoring the linguistic processes would also help the processing of non-linguistic representations. Although the “bilingual advantage” in executive control (Bialystok, 1999) has been repeatedly demonstrated, a number of recent studies—in particular since the publication of the Paap and Greenberg (2013) study—have questioned this effect. Both positive and null findings are currently being published from each of the two sides, thus making it difficult to reach consensus in the scientific community. Here, we propose a plausible solution to this debate: a group of independent researches should carry out a carefully planned large-scale study.

The Cognitive Neuroscience of Dreaming

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. William Domhoff
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Neuroscience ◽  
Developmental Trajectory ◽  
Dream Content ◽  
Default Network ◽  
The Novel ◽  
New Findings ◽  
Neural Substrate ◽  
Neurological Patients ◽  
Representative Samples

The fifth chapter presents the evidence for the novel idea that the neural substrate that enables dreaming is based in subsystems within the waking default network. The evidence for this hypothesis includes neuroimaging studies of representative samples of children and adults as well as studies of neurological patients who report they have experienced alterations in their dreaming, or even lost the ability to dream, due to their injury or illness. Based on these relatively new findings from many research settings, some as recent as 2015 and 2016, both the developmental trajectory of dreaming and the nature of dream content can be explained by the neurocognitive theory of dreams.

scholarly journals Individual differences in bilingual experience modulate executive control network and performance: behavioral and structural neuroimaging evidence

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Federico Gallo ◽  
Nikolay Novitskiy ◽  
Andriy Myachykov ◽  
Yury Shtyrov
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Executive Control ◽  
Structural Changes ◽  
Flanker Task ◽  
Continuous Variables ◽  
Executive Control Network ◽  
Functional Efficiency ◽  
Neural Substrate ◽  
And Performance

Abstract Dual/multiple language use has been shown to affect cognition and its neural substrate, although the replicability of such findings varies, partially due to neglecting the role of interindividual variability in bilingual experience. To address this, we operationalized the main bilingual experience factors as continuous variables, investigating their effects on executive control performance and neural substrate deploying a Flanker task and structural magnetic resonance imaging. First, higher L2 proficiency predicted better executive performance. Second, neuroimaging results indicated that bilingualism-related neuroplasticity may peak at a certain stage of bilingual experience and eventually revert, possibly following functional specialization. Importantly, experienced bilinguals optimized behavioral performance independently of volumetric variations, suggesting a degree of performance gain even with lower GMV. Hence, the effects of bilingualism on cognition may evolve with experience, with improvements in functional efficiency eventually replacing structural changes. We conclude that individual differences in bilingual experience modulate cognitive and neural consequences of bilingualism.

scholarly journals Combining local and global evolutionary trajectories of brain-behavior equilibrium through game theory

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simone Di Plinio ◽  
Sjoerd Ebisch
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Neuroscience ◽  
Brain Evolution ◽  
Neural Substrates ◽  
Functional Changes ◽  
Integrative Framework ◽  
Multiple Paths ◽  
Evolutionary Trajectories ◽  
Evolutionary Paths ◽  
Brain Behavior ◽  
Global And Local

The study of the evolution of brain-behavior relationships concerns understanding the causes and repercussions of cross- and within-species variability. Understanding such variability is a main objective of evolutionary and cognitive neuroscience, and it may help explaining the appearance of psychopathological phenotypes. Although the brain evolution is related to the progressive action of selection and adaptation through multiple paths (e.g., mosaic vs. concerted evolution, metabolic vs. structural and functional constraints), a coherent, integrative framework is needed to combine evolutionary paths and neuroscientific evidence. Here, we review the literature on evolutionary pressures focusing on structural-functional changes and developmental constraints. Taking advantage of progresses in neuroimaging and cognitive neuroscience, we propose a twofold model of brain evolution. Within this model, global and local trajectories imply rearrangements of neural subunits and subsystems as well as of behavioral repertoires of a species, respectively. We incorporate these two processes in a game in which the global trajectory shapes the structural-functional neural substrates (i.e., players), while the local trajectory shapes the behavioral repertoires (i.e., stochastic payoffs).

Cerebral plasticity in multiple sclerosis: insights from fMRI

2002 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 193-199 ◽  
Author(s):  
A Cifelli ◽  
P M Matthews
Keyword(s):  
Multiple Sclerosis ◽  
Cognitive Neuroscience ◽  
Brain Function ◽  
Functional Magnetic Resonance ◽  
Resonance Imaging ◽  
Clinical Expression ◽  
Cerebral Activation ◽  
Cerebral Plasticity ◽  
Neural Substrate ◽  
The Relationship

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) allows noninvasive localization of cerebral activation with relatively high spatial and temporal resolution. The considerable potential for the elucidation of the mechanisms of brain function has made it a useful tool to investigate the neural substrate of motor, sensory and cognitive functions. Understanding derived from these basic cognitive neuroscience investigations is beginning to be applied to clinically relevant problems. In this article, applications to multiple sclerosis (MS) are reviewed, which address the challenging notion that adaptive cerebral plasticity may have an important influence on the relationship between MS pathology and its clinical expression.

scholarly journals Artificial mosaic brain evolution of relative telencephalon size improves cognitive performance in the guppy (Poecilia reticulata)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zegni Triki ◽  
Stephanie Fong ◽  
Mirjam Amcoff ◽  
Niclas Kolm
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Essential Role ◽  
Food Reward ◽  
Poecilia Reticulata ◽  
Brain Evolution ◽  
Cognitive Evolution ◽  
Transparent Barrier ◽  
Cognitive Benefits ◽  
Mosaic Brain Evolution ◽  
The Brain

The telencephalon is a brain region believed to have played an essential role during cognitive evolution in vertebrates. However, till now, all the evidence on the evolutionary association between telencephalon size and cognition stem from comparative studies. To experimentally investigate the potential evolutionary association between cognitive abilities and telencephalon size, we used male guppies artificially selected for large and small telencephalon relative to the rest of the brain. In a detour task, we tested a functionally important aspect of executive cognitive ability; inhibitory control abilities. We found that males with larger telencephalon outperformed males with smaller telencephalon. They showed faster improvement in performance during detour training and were more successful in reaching the food reward without touching the transparent barrier. Together, our findings provide the first experimental evidence showing that evolutionary enlargements of relative telencephalon size confer cognitive benefits, supporting an important role for mosaic brain evolution during cognitive evolution.

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