Understanding the Evolutionary Origins of Theory of Mind: Computational Modeling of Conserved Cognitive Mechanisms Across Primates

该奖项是美国国家科学基金会社会、行为和经济科学博士后研究奖学金（SPRF）计划的一部分。SPRF计划的目标是为学术界、工业界或私营部门和政府的科学事业准备有前途的早期职业博士级科学家。SPRF奖励包括在知名科学家的赞助下进行为期两年的培训，并鼓励博士后进行独立研究。美国国家科学基金会寻求促进科学界各阶层的科学家，包括那些未被充分代表的群体的科学家，参与其研究项目和活动；博士后阶段被认为是实现这一目标的一个重要的专业发展阶段。每个博士后必须解决各自学科领域的重要科学问题。在耶鲁大学劳里·桑托斯（Laurie Santos）博士和朱利安·贾拉-艾丁格（Julian jala - ettinger）博士的赞助下，这个博士后奖学金奖支持一位研究人类和非人类灵长类动物如何理解他人思想的早期职业科学家。作为人类，理解他人的想法、感受、欲望和信仰是成功驾驭我们的社会世界的核心。然而，我们仍然对我们与其他动物在多大程度上共享他人精神状态的能力知之甚少，这阻碍了我们对人类认知进化的理解，并减缓了涉及这些技能缺陷的精神障碍治疗方法的发展。心理理论缺陷是自闭症谱系障碍、反社会人格障碍和精神分裂症等发育性和神经精神障碍的核心组成部分，对社会关系、有效沟通和道德推理有着深远的影响。动物模型最近提高了我们对影响社会决策的疾病（如帕金森病）及其治疗方法的神经生理机制的理解。然而，关于灵长类动物的认知机制判断的悬而未决的问题阻碍了动物模型的发展。该项目借鉴了为人类ToM建模而开发的计算方法来克服这些挑战。通过首次对非人类灵长类动物（NHP）的ToM进行计算建模，该项目将阐明人类和NHP在判断他人精神状态时共享的认知机制。此外，该研究员将通过计算确定新的实验设计，这些设计可以有效地区分关于NHP ToM的竞争性代表性假设，并将测试自由放养的恒河猴，以经验评估这些设计。这项工作将(1)有助于我们对ToM的进化和指导社会行为的认知机制的基本理解；(2)推进人类ToM的NHP模型，这将有助于我们理解和治疗与ToM相关的精神障碍。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This award was provided as part of NSF's Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences Postdoctoral Research Fellowships (SPRF) program. The goal of the SPRF program is to prepare promising, early career doctoral-level scientists for scientific careers in academia, industry or private sector, and government. SPRF awards involve two years of training under the sponsorship of established scientists and encourage Postdoctoral Fellows to perform independent research. NSF seeks to promote the participation of scientists from all segments of the scientific community, including those from underrepresented groups, in its research programs and activities; the postdoctoral period is considered to be an important level of professional development in attaining this goal. Each Postdoctoral Fellow must address important scientific questions that advance their respective disciplinary fields. Under the sponsorship of Dr. Laurie Santos and Dr. Julian Jara-Ettinger at Yale University, this postdoctoral fellowship award supports an early career scientist investigating how humans and non-human primates understand the minds of others. As humans, understanding what other people think, feel, desire, and believe is central to successfully navigating our social world. However, we still know little about the extent to which our ability to represent others’ mental states is shared with other animals, impeding our understanding of human cognitive evolution and slowing the development of treatments for mental disorders involving deficits in these skills.Deficits in theory of mind (ToM) are core components of developmental and neuropsychiatric disorders including autism spectrum disorder, antisocial personality disorder, and schizophrenia, and have profound effects on social relationships, effective communication, and moral reasoning. Animal models have recently advanced our understanding of the neurophysiological mechanisms underlying diseases that affect social decision-making (e.g., Parkinson’s disease) and approaches for their treatment. However, outstanding questions about the cognitive mechanisms underlying primates’ ToM judgments have impeded the development of an animal model of ToM. This project draws on computational methods developed for modeling human ToM to overcome these challenges. By computationally modeling non-human primate (NHP) ToM for the first time, this project will elucidate which cognitive mechanisms humans and NHPs share when making judgments about others’ mental states. Additionally, the fellow will computationally identify new experimental designs that can powerfully distinguish between competing representational hypotheses about NHP ToM and will test free-ranging rhesus macaques to empirically evaluate these designs. This work will (1) contribute to our fundamental understanding of the evolution of ToM and the cognitive mechanisms that guide social behavior and (2) advance a NHP model of human ToM which will aid in our understanding and treatment of ToM-related mental disorders.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.