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.

scholarly journals Fish perform like mammals and birds in inhibitory motor control tasks

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tyrone Lucon-Xiccato ◽  
Elia Gatto ◽  
Angelo Bisazza
Keyword(s):  
Inhibitory Control ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Food Reward ◽  
Poecilia Reticulata ◽  
Brain Size ◽  
Motor Task ◽  
Transparent Barrier ◽  
The Social ◽  
Inhibitory Motor Control ◽  
A Performance

AbstractInhibitory control is an executive function that positively predicts performance in several cognitive tasks and has been considered typical of vertebrates with large and complex nervous systems such as primates. However, evidence is growing that some fish species have evolved complex cognitive abilities in spite of their relatively small brain size. We tested whether fish might also show enhanced inhibitory control by subjecting guppies, Poecilia reticulata, to the motor task used to test warm-blooded vertebrates. Guppies were trained to enter a horizontal opaque cylinder to reach a food reward; then, the cylinder was replaced by a transparent one, and subjects needed to inhibit the response to pass thought the transparency to reach the food. Guppies performed correctly in 58 % of trials, a performance fully comparable to that observed in most birds and mammals. In experiment 2, we tested guppies in a task with a different type of reward, a group of conspecifics. Guppies rapidly learned to detour a transparent barrier to reach the social reward with a performance close to that of experiment 1. Our study suggests that efficient inhibitory control is shown also by fish, and its variation between-species is only partially explained by variation in brain size.

scholarly journals Rapid mosaic brain evolution under artificial selection for relative telencephalon size in the guppy ( Poecilia reticulata )

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (46) ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephanie Fong ◽  
Björn Rogell ◽  
Mirjam Amcoff ◽  
Alexander Kotrschal ◽  
Wouter van der Bijl ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Artificial Selection ◽  
Poecilia Reticulata ◽  
Brain Evolution ◽  
Selection For ◽  
Mosaic Brain Evolution

scholarly journals Rapid mosaic brain evolution under artificial selection for relative telencephalon size in the guppy (Poecilia reticulata)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephanie Fong ◽  
Björn Rogell ◽  
Mirjam Amcoff ◽  
Alexander Kotrschal ◽  
Wouter van der Bijl ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Artificial Selection ◽  
Poecilia Reticulata ◽  
Brain Size ◽  
Brain Evolution ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Research Field ◽  
Selected Lines ◽  
Vertebrate Brain ◽  
Offspring Production ◽  
Mosaic Brain Evolution

The vertebrate brain displays enormous morphological variation and the quest to understand the evolutionary causes and consequences of this variation has spurred much research. The mosaic brain evolution hypothesis, stating that brain regions can evolve relatively independently, is an important idea in this research field. Here we provide experimental support for this hypothesis through an artificial selection experiment in the guppy (Poecilia reticulata). After four generations of selection on relative telencephalon volume (relative to brain size) in replicated up-selected, down-selected and control-lines, we found substantial changes in telencephalon size, but no changes in other regions. Comparisons revealed that up-selected lines had larger telencephalon while down-selected lines had smaller telencephalon than wild Trinidadian populations. No cost of increasing telencephalon size was detected in offspring production. Our results support that independent evolutionary changes in specific brain regions through mosaic brain evolution can be important facilitators of cognitive evolution.

scholarly journals Evidence for Concerted and Mosaic Brain Evolution in Dragon Lizards

2017 ◽  
Vol 90 (3) ◽  
pp. 211-223 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Hoops ◽  
Marta Vidal-García ◽  
Jeremy F.P. Ullmann ◽  
Andrew L. Janke ◽  
Timothy Stait-Gardner ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Body Size ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Brain Evolution ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Evolution Model ◽  
Brain Morphology ◽  
Evolutionary Patterns ◽  
Mosaic Brain Evolution ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Regional Brain Volume

The brain plays a critical role in a wide variety of functions including behaviour, perception, motor control, and homeostatic maintenance. Each function can undergo different selective pressures over the course of evolution, and as selection acts on the outputs of brain function, it necessarily alters the structure of the brain. Two models have been proposed to explain the evolutionary patterns observed in brain morphology. The concerted brain evolution model posits that the brain evolves as a single unit and the evolution of different brain regions are coordinated. The mosaic brain evolution model posits that brain regions evolve independently of each other. It is now understood that both models are responsible for driving changes in brain morphology; however, which factors favour concerted or mosaic brain evolution is unclear. Here, we examined the volumes of the 6 major neural subdivisions across 14 species of the agamid lizard genus Ctenophorus (dragons). These species have diverged multiple times in behaviour, ecology, and body morphology, affording a unique opportunity to test neuroevolutionary models across species. We assigned each species to an ecomorph based on habitat use and refuge type, then used MRI to measure total and regional brain volume. We found evidence for both mosaic and concerted brain evolution in dragons: concerted brain evolution with respect to body size, and mosaic brain evolution with respect to ecomorph. Specifically, all brain subdivisions increase in volume relative to body size, yet the tectum and rhombencephalon also show opposite patterns of evolution with respect to ecomorph. Therefore, we find that both models of evolution are occurring simultaneously in the same structures in dragons, but are only detectable when examining particular drivers of selection. We show that the answer to the question of whether concerted or mosaic brain evolution is detected in a system can depend more on the type of selection measured than on the clade of animals studied.

scholarly journals Effect of Environmental Enrichment on the Brain and on Learning and Cognition by Animals

Animals ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 973
Author(s):  
Thomas R. Zentall
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Environmental Enrichment ◽  
Behavioral Effect ◽  
Enriched Environment ◽  
Main Concern ◽  
Accurate Assessment ◽  
Housing Conditions ◽  
Complex Tasks ◽  
Learning And Cognition ◽  
The Brain

The humane treatment of animals suggests that they should be housed in an environment that is rich in stimulation and allows for varied activities. However, even if one’s main concern is an accurate assessment of their learning and cognitive abilities, housing them in an enriched environment can have an important effect on the assessment of those abilities. Research has found that the development of the brain of animals is significantly affected by the environment in which they live. Not surprisingly, their ability to learn both simple and complex tasks is affected by even modest time spent in an enriched environment. In particular, animals that are housed in an enriched environment are less impulsive and make more optimal choices than animals housed in isolation. Even the way that they judge the passage of time is affected by their housing conditions. Some researchers have even suggested that exposing animals to an enriched environment can make them more “optimistic” in how they treat ambiguous stimuli. Whether that behavioral effect reflects the subtlety of differences in optimism/pessimism or something simpler, like differences in motivation, incentive, discriminability, or neophobia, it is clear that the conditions of housing can have an important effect on the learning and cognition of animals.

A bigger brain for a more complex environment

2020 ◽  
Vol 31 (8) ◽  
pp. 803-816
Author(s):  
Umberto di Porzio
Keyword(s):  
Human Brain ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Molecular Genetic ◽  
Adult Size ◽  
Genetic Changes ◽  
Cultural Challenges ◽  
Birth Canal ◽  
Newborn Brain ◽  
Neuronal Interactions ◽  
The Brain

AbstractThe environment increased complexity required more neural functions to develop in the hominin brains, and the hominins adapted to the complexity by developing a bigger brain with a greater interconnection between its parts. Thus, complex environments drove the growth of the brain. In about two million years during hominin evolution, the brain increased three folds in size, one of the largest and most complex amongst mammals, relative to body size. The size increase has led to anatomical reorganization and complex neuronal interactions in a relatively small skull. At birth, the human brain is only about 20% of its adult size. That facilitates the passage through the birth canal. Therefore, the human brain, especially cortex, develops postnatally in a rich stimulating environment with continuous brain wiring and rewiring and insertion of billions of new neurons. One of the consequence is that in the newborn brain, neuroplasticity is always turned “on” and it remains active throughout life, which gave humans the ability to adapt to complex and often hostile environments, integrate external experiences, solve problems, elaborate abstract ideas and innovative technologies, store a lot of information. Besides, hominins acquired unique abilities as music, language, and intense social cooperation. Overwhelming ecological, social, and cultural challenges have made the human brain so unique. From these events, as well as the molecular genetic changes that took place in those million years, under the pressure of natural selection, derive the distinctive cognitive abilities that have led us to complex social organizations and made our species successful.

Central Auditory Processing

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Josef P. Rauschecker
Keyword(s):  
Auditory Cortex ◽  
Auditory Processing ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Auditory Perception ◽  
Auditory Brainstem ◽  
Central Auditory Processing ◽  
Visible Part ◽  
Auditory Object ◽  
Mother’S Voice ◽  
The Brain

When one talks about hearing, some may first imagine the auricle (or external ear), which is the only visible part of the auditory system in humans and other mammals. Its shape and size vary among people, but it does not tell us much about a person’s abilities to hear (except perhaps their ability to localize sounds in space, where the shape of the auricle plays a certain role). Most of what is used for hearing is inside the head, particularly in the brain. The inner ear transforms mechanical vibrations into electrical signals; then the auditory nerve sends these signals into the brainstem, where intricate preprocessing occurs. Although auditory brainstem mechanisms are an important part of central auditory processing, it is the processing taking place in the cerebral cortex (with the thalamus as the mediator), which enables auditory perception and cognition. Human speech and the appreciation of music can hardly be imagined without a complex cortical network of specialized regions, each contributing different aspects of auditory cognitive abilities. During the evolution of these abilities in higher vertebrates, especially birds and mammals, the cortex played a crucial role, so a great deal of what is referred to as central auditory processing happens there. Whether it is the recognition of one’s mother’s voice, listening to Pavarotti singing or Yo-Yo Ma playing the cello, hearing or reading Shakespeare’s sonnets, it will evoke electrical vibrations in the auditory cortex, but it does not end there. Large parts of frontal and parietal cortex receive auditory signals originating in auditory cortex, forming processing streams for auditory object recognition and auditory-motor control, before being channeled into other parts of the brain for comprehension and enjoyment.

scholarly journals Evolution in the Brain, Evolution in the Mind: The Hierarchical Brain and the Interface between Psychoanalysis and Neuroscience

2017 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 349-377
Author(s):  
Leonardo Niro Nascimento
Keyword(s):  
Brain Evolution ◽  
The Other ◽  
Common Source ◽  
Evolutionary Models ◽  
Anatomy And Physiology ◽  
Psychodynamically Oriented ◽  
The One ◽  
The Mind ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Shed Light

This article first aims to demonstrate the different ways the work of the English neurologist John Hughlings Jackson influenced Freud. It argues that these can be summarized in six points. It is further argued that the framework proposed by Jackson continued to be pursued by twentieth-century neuroscientists such as Papez, MacLean and Panksepp in terms of tripartite hierarchical evolutionary models. Finally, the account presented here aims to shed light on the analogies encountered by psychodynamically oriented neuroscientists, between contemporary accounts of the anatomy and physiology of the nervous system on the one hand, and Freudian models of the mind on the other. These parallels, I will suggest, are not coincidental. They have a historical underpinning, as both accounts most likely originate from a common source: John Hughlings Jackson's tripartite evolutionary hierarchical view of the brain.

Morphometry in schizophrenia revisited: height and its relationship to pre-morbid function

1998 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 655-663 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. NOPOULOS ◽  
M. FLAUM ◽  
S. ARNDT ◽  
N. ANDREASEN
Keyword(s):  
Psychosocial Adjustment ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Economic Status ◽  
The Body ◽  
Abnormal Development ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Childhood And Adolescence ◽  
Lower Quartile ◽  
And Function ◽  
The Brain

Background. Morphometry, the measurement of forms, is an ancient practice. In particular, schizophrenic somatology was popular early in this century, but has been essentially absent from the literature for over 30 years. More recently, evidence has grown to support the notion that aberrant neurodevelopment may play a role in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia. Is the body, like the brain, affected by abnormal development in these patients?Methods. To evaluate global deficit in development and its relationship to pre-morbid function, height was compared in a large group (N=226) of male schizophrenics and a group of healthy male controls (N=142) equivalent in parental socio-economic status. Patients in the lower quartile of height were compared to those in the upper quartile of height.Results. The patient group had a mean height of 177·1 cm, which was significantly shorter than the mean height of the control group of 179·4 (P<0·003). Those in the lower quartile had significantly poorer pre-morbid function as measured by: (1) psychosocial adjustment using the pre-morbid adjustment scales for childhood and adolescence/young adulthood, and (2) cognitive function using measures of school performance such as grades and need for special education. In addition, these measures of pre-morbid function correlated significantly with height when analysed using the entire sample.Conclusions. These findings provide further support to the idea that abnormal development may play a key role in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia. Furthermore, this is manifested as a global deficit in growth and function resulting in smaller stature, poorer social skills, and deficits in cognitive abilities.

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