Cognitive Science: Persistent Apes Are Intelligent Apes.
Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Eisenreich BR
PROVIDER: S-EPMC5843479 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Feb
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Publications
Cognitive Science: Persistent Apes Are Intelligent Apes.
Eisenreich Benjamin R BR Hayden Benjamin Y BY
Current biology : CB 20180201 4
In humans, self-control is correlated with general intelligence; a new study finds that this correlation extends to chimpanzees as well. The new results highlight the cognitive bases of self-control and suggest a common evolutionary history for human and primate self-control. ...[more]
Similar Datasets
Project description:Human children show unique cognitive skills for dealing with the social world but their cognitive performance is paralleled by great apes in many tasks dealing with the physical world. Recent studies suggested that members of a songbird family-corvids-also evolved complex cognitive skills but a detailed understanding of the full scope of their cognition was, until now, not existent. Furthermore, relatively little is known about their cognitive development. Here, we conducted the first systematic, quantitative large-scale assessment of physical and social cognitive performance of common ravens with a special focus on development. To do so, we fine-tuned one of the most comprehensive experimental test-batteries, the Primate Cognition Test Battery (PCTB), to raven features enabling also a direct, quantitative comparison with the cognitive performance of two great ape species. Full-blown cognitive skills were already present at the age of four months with subadult ravens' cognitive performance appearing very similar to that of adult apes in tasks of physical (quantities, and causality) and social cognition (social learning, communication, and theory of mind). These unprecedented findings strengthen recent assessments of ravens' general intelligence, and aid to the growing evidence that the lack of a specific cortical architecture does not hinder advanced cognitive skills. Difficulties in certain cognitive scales further emphasize the quest to develop comparative test batteries that tap into true species rather than human specific cognitive skills, and suggest that socialization of test individuals may play a crucial role. We conclude to pay more attention to the impact of personality on cognitive output, and a currently neglected topic in Animal Cognition-the linkage between ontogeny and cognitive performance.
| S-EPMC7728792 | biostudies-literature
Project description:5q13 human and rhesus macaque Genome sequencing and assembly
| PRJNA631296 | ENA
Project description:The present research examined the psychological motives underlying widespread support for intelligent design theory (IDT), a purportedly scientific theory that lacks any scientific evidence; and antagonism toward evolutionary theory (ET), a theory supported by a large body of scientific evidence. We tested whether these attitudes are influenced by IDT's provision of an explanation of life's origins that better addresses existential concerns than ET. In four studies, existential threat (induced via reminders of participants' own mortality) increased acceptance of IDT and/or rejection of ET, regardless of participants' religion, religiosity, educational background, or preexisting attitude toward evolution. Effects were reversed by teaching participants that naturalism can be a source of existential meaning (Study 4), and among natural-science students for whom ET may already provide existential meaning (Study 5). These reversals suggest that the effect of heightened mortality awareness on attitudes toward ET and IDT is due to a desire to find greater meaning and purpose in science when existential threats are activated.
| S-EPMC3068159 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Recent times have seen increasing interest in conversational assistants (e.g., Amazon Alexa) designed to help users in their daily tasks. In military settings, it is critical to design assistants that are, simultaneously, helpful and able to minimize the user's cognitive load. Here, we show that embodiment plays a key role in achieving that goal. We present an experiment where participants engaged in an augmented reality version of the relatively well-known desert survival task. Participants were paired with a voice assistant, an embodied assistant, or no assistant. The assistants made suggestions verbally throughout the task, whereas the embodied assistant further used gestures and emotion to communicate with the user. Our results indicate that both assistant conditions led to higher performance over the no assistant condition, but the embodied assistant achieved this with less cognitive burden on the decision maker than the voice assistant, which is a novel contribution. We discuss implications for the design of intelligent collaborative systems for the warfighter.
| S-EPMC7705099 | biostudies-literature
Project description:When informed by an understanding of cognitive science, radiologists' workstations could become collaborative to improve radiologists' performance and job satisfaction. The authors review relevant literature and present several promising areas of research, including image toggling, eye tracking, cognitive computing, intelligently restricted messaging, work habit tracking, and innovative input devices. The authors call for more research in "perceptual design," a promising field that can complement advances in computer-aided detection.
| S-EPMC5537723 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The Mars mission will result in an inevitable exposure to cosmic radiation that has been shown to cause cognitive impairments in rodent models, and possibly in astronauts engaged in deep space travel. Of particular concern is the potential for cosmic radiation exposure to compromise critical decision making during normal operations or under emergency conditions in deep space. Rodents exposed to cosmic radiation exhibit persistent hippocampal and cortical based performance decrements using six independent behavioral tasks administered between separate cohorts 12 and 24 weeks after irradiation. Radiation-induced impairments in spatial, episodic and recognition memory were temporally coincident with deficits in executive function and reduced rates of fear extinction and elevated anxiety. Irradiation caused significant reductions in dendritic complexity, spine density and altered spine morphology along medial prefrontal cortical neurons known to mediate neurotransmission interrogated by our behavioral tasks. Cosmic radiation also disrupted synaptic integrity and increased neuroinflammation that persisted more than 6 months after exposure. Behavioral deficits for individual animals correlated significantly with reduced spine density and increased synaptic puncta, providing quantitative measures of risk for developing cognitive impairment. Our data provide additional evidence that deep space travel poses a real and unique threat to the integrity of neural circuits in the brain.
| S-EPMC5056393 | biostudies-literature
Project description:We have determined methylation state differences in the epigenomes of neutrophils purified from human and chimpanzee. We used deep sequencing of ends generated by digestion with a methylation-sensitive restriction enzyme, followed by analysis with the MetMap computational pipeline to infer methylation states from the sequencing data. Using the orangutan as an outgroup, analysis of DNA sequence substitutions in CG-dense regions that are either methylated or unmethylated in all three species indicates that methylation states in the neutrophil reflect methylation states in the germline. Differences in methylation states were not correlated with differences in the local genomic sequences, indicating that they can be determined independently of local DNA sequence. Methylation differences were not distributed randomly among the individuals we analyzed, but recapitulated the known phylogenetic relationships of the three species in a pattern consistent with their stable inheritance. This data provide the first comprehensive dataset indicating that epigenetic states are maintained as independent characters that are predictably transmitted within species. Heritable epigenetic differences such as those we have identified could readily have functional and adaptive consequences, and contribute to the phenotypic divergence of human and chimpanzee.
2011-09-09 | GSE22376 | GEO
Project description:BackgroundWe aimed to describe the Subjective Cognitive Impairment Cohort (SCIENCe) study design, to cross-sectionally describe participant characteristics, and to evaluate the SCD-plus criteria.MethodsThe SCIENCe is a prospective cohort study of subjective cognitive decline (SCD) patients. Participants undergo extensive assessment, including cerebrospinal fluid collection and optional amyloid positron emission tomography scan, with annual follow-up. The primary outcome measure is clinical progression.ResultsCross-sectional evaluation of the first 151 participants (age 64?±?8, 44% female, Mini-Mental State Examination 29?±?2) showed that 28 (25%) had preclinical Alzheimer's disease (AD) (amyloid status available n?=?114 (75%)), 58 (38%) had subthreshold psychiatry, and 65 (43%) had neither. More severe subjective complaints were associated with worse objective performance. The SCD-plus criteria age???60 (OR 7.7 (95% CI 1.7-38.9)) and apolipoprotein E (genotype) e4 (OR 4.8 (95% CI 1.6-15.0)) were associated with preclinical AD.ConclusionsThe SCIENCe study confirms that SCD is a heterogeneous group, with preclinical AD and subthreshold psychiatric features. We found a number of SCD-plus criteria to be associated with preclinical AD. Further inclusion and follow-up will address important questions related to SCD.
| S-EPMC6080529 | biostudies-literature
Project description:This study aimed to map and characterize public engagement with science on YouTube. A two-part study was conducted. First, we collected and quantitatively analyzed trending videos on YouTube to evaluate the magnitude of public interaction with science content. Then, we assessed actual, rather than self-reports of, media interactions with science-related YouTube trending videos. We tested associations between behavioral engagement of viewing, liking, disliking or commenting, and emotional and cognitive engagement. Our findings affirm that science content attracts high public interest and that emotional and cognitive engagement with science on social media are distinct, but interrelated. We show that regardless of the valence of emotional engagement, emotion is linked to greater behavioral engagement of posting comments and to greater cognitive engagement of argumentative deliberation. Therefore, our findings suggest that social media interactions, which tend to evoke emotional responses, are a promising means of advancing person-to-person engagement with science.
| S-EPMC8314998 | biostudies-literature