Evolution of social cognition and the neurocognitive bases of transitive inference in monkeys

猴子社会认知的进化和传递推理的神经认知基础

• 批准号: 1146316
• 负责人: Robert Hampton
• 金额: $ 80万
• 依托单位: Emory University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2012
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2012-03-15 至 2017-02-28
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1146316&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Evolution; social; cognition; neurocognitive; bases

Cognitive evolution in humans has likely been influenced by selection for adept social behavior. Determining the ways in which social and nonsocial cognition share common representational and brain systems is therefore critical for understanding cognition. Transitive inference (TI) is the ability to infer the relation between two items based on relations with a third (e.g. Dave is taller than Sue, Sue is taller than Jake, therefore Dave is taller than Jake). Transitive inference, while useful in many domains, may have been selected specifically for learning social dominance relationships. The researchers have created infrastructure for remote computerized cognitive testing of monkeys in large social groups as well as in laboratory housed subjects. This infrastructure allows them to study naturally acquired social knowledge and compare it with social and non-social knowledge acquired in the laboratory. They anticipate that this research will determine the ways in which social and nonsocial transitive inference depend on the same cognitive systems, will document mechanisms of logical inference in TI, and will identify the contribution of a part of the primate brain, the hippocampus, to TI. This research is important because it will advance our understanding of the brain mechanisms critical for social behavior and those critical for more abstract reasoning. The researchers? unique remotely accessible cognitive testing system is being used to provide Emory University undergraduate students with hands on experience designing and conducting primate cognition experiments. In the future it may allow members of groups underrepresented in science, such as physically disabled persons and students at institutions with few scientific resources, to participate in the scientific process, thus promoting diversity in the professional scientific community. The investigators also share findings with the public through their active website and activities a Zoo Atlanta.

人类的认知进化很可能受到对熟练社会行为的选择的影响。因此，确定社会认知和非社会认知共享表征系统和大脑系统的方式对于理解认知至关重要。传递推理（TI）是基于与第三个项目的关系推断两个项目之间关系的能力（例如，戴夫比苏高，苏比杰克高，因此戴夫比杰克高）。传递推理虽然在许多领域都很有用，但可能是专门为学习社会支配关系而选择的。研究人员已经建立了远程计算机化的基础设施，可以对大型社会群体中的猴子以及实验室中的猴子进行认知测试。这种基础设施使他们能够研究自然获得的社会知识，并将其与实验室中获得的社会和非社会知识进行比较。他们预计，这项研究将确定社会和非社会传递推理依赖于相同认知系统的方式，将记录TI中的逻辑推理机制，并将确定灵长类大脑的一部分海马对TI的贡献。这项研究很重要，因为它将促进我们对社会行为和更抽象推理的关键大脑机制的理解。研究人员?一个独特的远程认知测试系统被用来为埃默里大学的本科生提供设计和进行灵长类动物认知实验的实践经验。将来，它可能允许在科学领域代表性不足的群体的成员，例如身体残疾的人和科学资源很少的机构的学生，参与科学进程，从而促进专业科学界的多样性。调查人员还通过他们活跃的网站和亚特兰大动物园的活动与公众分享调查结果。