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).

scholarly journals Beyond brain size

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Corina J Logan ◽  
Shahar Avin ◽  
Neeltje Boogert ◽  
Andrew Buskell ◽  
Fiona R. Cross ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Brain Size ◽  
Size Variation ◽  
Brain Evolution ◽  
Simple Relationship ◽  
Cognitive Significance ◽  
Cognitive Measures ◽  
Behavioral Complexity ◽  
Behavioral Traits ◽  
Evolutionary Trajectories ◽  
Brain Behavior

AbstractDespite prolonged interest in comparing brain size and behavioral proxies of ‘intelligence’ across taxa, the adaptive and cognitive significance of brain size variation remains elusive. Central to this problem is the continued focus on hominid cognition as a benchmark, and the assumption that behavioral complexity has a simple relationship with brain size. Although comparative studies of brain size have been criticized for not reflecting how evolution actually operates, and for producing spurious, inconsistent results, the causes of these limitations have received little discussion. We show how these issues arise from implicit assumptions about what brain size measures and how it correlates with behavioral and cognitive traits. We explore how inconsistencies can arise through heterogeneity in evolutionary trajectories and selection pressures on neuroanatomy or neurophysiology across taxa. We examine how interference from ecological and life history variables complicates interpretations of brain-behavior correlations, and point out how this problem is exacerbated by the limitations of brain and cognitive measures. These considerations, and the diversity of brain morphologies and behavioral capacities, suggest that comparative brain-behavior research can make greater progress by focusing on specific neuroanatomical and behavioral traits within relevant ecological and evolutionary contexts. We suggest that a synergistic combination of the ‘bottom up’ approach of classical neuroethology and the ‘top down’ approach of comparative biology/psychology within closely related but behaviorally diverse clades can limit the effects of heterogeneity, interference, and noise. We argue this shift away from broad-scale analyses of superficial phenotypes will provide deeper, more robust insights into brain evolution.

scholarly journals Magnetic resonance imaging for smoking abstinence: symptoms, mechanisms, and interventions

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 75-96
Author(s):  
Yanzhi Bi ◽  
Li Hu
Keyword(s):  
Magnetic Resonance Imaging ◽  
Smoking Cessation ◽  
Magnetic Resonance ◽  
Neural Substrates ◽  
Adverse Outcomes ◽  
Smoking Abstinence ◽  
Resonance Imaging ◽  
Functional Changes ◽  
Quit Attempts ◽  
The Central Nervous System

Tobacco smoking is the leading preventable cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Although a number of smokers are aware of the adverse outcomes of smoking and express a strong desire to stop smoking, most smoking quit attempts end in relapse within the first few days of abstinence, primarily resulting from the aversive aspects of the nicotine withdrawal syndrome. Therefore, studying the neural mechanisms of smoking abstinence, identifying smokers with heightened relapse vulnerability prior to quit attempts, and developing effective smoking cessation treatments appear to be promising strategies for improving the success of quit attempts. In recent years, with the development of magnetic resonance imaging, the neural substrates of smoking abstinence have become extensively studied. In this review, we first introduce the psychophysiological changes induced by smoking abstinence, including affective, cognitive, and somatic signs. We then provide an overview of the magnetic resonance imaging-based evidence regarding abstinence-related functional changes accompanied by these psychophysiological changes. We conclude with a discussion of the neural markers that could predict relapse during quit attempts and a summary of the psychophysiological interventions that are currently often used to help with smoking cessation. This review extends our understanding of the role of the central nervous system in smoking abstinence.

Neural behaviorism: From brain evolution to human emotion at the speed of an action potential

2000 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 212-213 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jaak Panksepp
Keyword(s):  
Action Potential ◽  
Brain Evolution ◽  
Neural Substrates ◽  
Constructivist Theory ◽  
Primary Process ◽  
Important Data ◽  
Human Emotion ◽  
Fundamental Nature ◽  
Learned Behaviors ◽  
Motivated Behaviors

Rolls shares important data on hunger, thirst, sexuality, and learned behaviors, but is it pertinent to understanding the fundamental nature of emotionality? Important as such work is for understanding the motivated behaviors of animals, Rolls builds a constructivist theory of emotions and primary-process affective consciousness without considering past evidence on specific types of emotional tendencies and their diverse neural substrates.

Human nature without a soul?

2004 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-64 ◽  
Author(s):  
MALCOLM JEEVES
Keyword(s):  
Human Nature ◽  
Cognitive Neuroscience ◽  
Scientific Evidence ◽  
Neural Substrates ◽  
Top Down ◽  
The Past ◽  
Neural Processes ◽  
Mind And Brain ◽  
The Mind ◽  
To Receive

Rapid developments in neuroscience over the past four decades continue to receive wide media attention. Each new reported advance points to ever tightening links between mind and brain. For many centuries, what is today called ‘mind-talk’ was familiar as ‘soul-talk’. Since, for some, the possession of a soul is what makes us human, the challenges of cognitive neuroscience directly address this. This paper affords the non-specialist a brief overview of some of the scientific evidence pointing to the ever tightening of the mind-brain links and explores its wider implications for our understanding of human nature. In particular it brings together the findings from so-called bottom-up research, in which we observe changes in behaviour and cognition resulting from experimental interventions in neural processes, with top-down research where we track changes in neural substrates accompanying habitual modes of cognition or behaviour. Further reflection alerts one to how the dualist views widely held by New Agers, some humanists and many religious people, contrast with the views of academic philosophers, theologians and biblical scholars, who agree in emphasizing the unity of the person.

scholarly journals Evolution of regulatory signatures in primate cortical neurons at cell-type resolution

2020 ◽  
Vol 117 (45) ◽  
pp. 28422-28432
Author(s):  
Alexey Kozlenkov ◽  
Marit W. Vermunt ◽  
Pasha Apontes ◽  
Junhao Li ◽  
Ke Hao ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cortical Neurons ◽  
Brain Evolution ◽  
Cell Types ◽  
Regulatory Elements ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Projection Neurons ◽  
Evolutionary Divergence ◽  
Cell Type ◽  
Tissue Samples ◽  
Functional Changes

The human cerebral cortex contains many cell types that likely underwent independent functional changes during evolution. However, cell-type–specific regulatory landscapes in the cortex remain largely unexplored. Here we report epigenomic and transcriptomic analyses of the two main cortical neuronal subtypes, glutamatergic projection neurons and GABAergic interneurons, in human, chimpanzee, and rhesus macaque. Using genome-wide profiling of the H3K27ac histone modification, we identify neuron-subtype–specific regulatory elements that previously went undetected in bulk brain tissue samples. Human-specific regulatory changes are uncovered in multiple genes, including those associated with language, autism spectrum disorder, and drug addiction. We observe preferential evolutionary divergence in neuron subtype-specific regulatory elements and show that a substantial fraction of pan-neuronal regulatory elements undergoes subtype-specific evolutionary changes. This study sheds light on the interplay between regulatory evolution and cell-type–dependent gene-expression programs, and provides a resource for further exploration of human brain evolution and function.

Why the Assessment of Causality in Brain–Behavior Relations Requires Brain Stimulation

2012 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 775-777 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juha Silvanto ◽  
Alvaro Pascual-Leone
Keyword(s):  
Opposite Direction ◽  
Brain Stimulation ◽  
Cognitive Neuroscience ◽  
Neural Activity ◽  
Functional Neuroimaging ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Causal Link ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
Brain Behavior

A central aim in cognitive neuroscience is to explain how neural activity gives rise to perception and behavior; the causal link of paramount interest is thus from brain to behavior. Functional neuroimaging studies, however, tend to provide information in the opposite direction by informing us how manipulation of behavior may affect neural activity. Although this may provide valuable insights into neuronal properties, one cannot use such evidence to make inferences about the behavioral significance of the observed activations; if A causes B, it does not necessarily follow that B causes A. In contrast, brain stimulation techniques enable us to directly modulate brain activity as the source of behavior and thus establish causal links.

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.

scholarly journals Telencephalic Neuronal Activation Associated with Spatial Memory in the Terrestrial Toad Rhinella arenarum: Participation of the Medial Pallium during Navigation by Geometry

2016 ◽  
Vol 88 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 149-160 ◽  
Author(s):  
María Inés Sotelo ◽  
M. Florencia Daneri ◽  
Verner Peter Bingman ◽  
Rubén N. Muzio
Keyword(s):  
Training Session ◽  
Brain Evolution ◽  
Visual Feature ◽  
Test Environment ◽  
Terrestrial Vertebrates ◽  
Terrestrial Life ◽  
Geometry Feature ◽  
Boundary Geometry ◽  
Environmental Geometry ◽  
Brain Behavior

Amphibians are central to discussions of vertebrate evolution because they represent the transition from aquatic to terrestrial life, a transition with profound consequences for the selective pressures shaping brain evolution. Spatial navigation is one class of behavior that has attracted the interest of comparative neurobiologists because of the relevance of the medial pallium/hippocampus, yet, surprisingly, in this regard amphibians have been sparsely investigated. In the current study, we trained toads to locate a water goal relying on the boundary geometry of a test environment (Geometry-Only) or boundary geometry coupled with a prominent, visual feature cue (Geometry-Feature). Once learning had been achieved, the animals were given one last training session and their telencephali were processed for c-Fos activation. Compared to control toads exposed to the test environment for the first time, geometry-only toads were found to have increased neuronal labeling in the medial pallium, the presumptive hippocampal homologue, while geometry-feature toads were found to have increased neuronal labeling in the medial, dorsal, and lateral pallia. The data indicate medial pallial participation in guiding navigation by environmental geometry and lateral, and to a lesser extent dorsal, pallial participation in guiding navigation by a prominent visual feature. As such, participation of the medial pallium/hippocampus in spatial cognition appears to be a conserved feature of terrestrial vertebrates even if their life history is still tied to water, a brain-behavior feature seemingly at least as ancient as the evolutionary transition to life on land.

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