Doctoral Dissertation Improvement: The Neural Bases of Social Cognition in Chimpanzees (Pan Troglodytes)

社会复杂性被认为是大脑体积增大背后的驱动力，这是人类进化的标志之一：随着社会群体变得更加复杂，大脑变得更大，从而提供了更强的认知能力来监控和操纵关系。这项研究将通过描述黑猩猩（类人猿）与社会认知相关的大脑活动模式，并将其与之前描述的更大的人类大脑进行比较，来评估这一假设。功能神经成像将用于比较五只成年黑猩猩在社会认知和非社会认知过程中的大脑活动。在社会条件下，受试者将观看一段描述黑猩猩进行社会互动的短视频（例如，梳理毛发或玩耍），然后必须在相同类型互动的照片和不同类型互动的照片之间进行选择。在非社会条件下，受试者将观看黑猩猩从事非社会行为的视频（例如，进食或行走），并必须选择一张相同行为的照片。这些数据将与发表的关于类似认知任务中人类大脑活动的报告进行比较。该项目将阐明人类社会认知的神经基础的起源，并询问人类社会认知过程中的大脑功能模式是我们物种独有的，还是与我们最亲近的亲戚共有的。由于黑猩猩是人类现存的近亲，直接比较人类和黑猩猩的大脑是研究人类大脑独特方面的最好方法之一。如果黑猩猩的大脑在对社会刺激的反应中表现出与人类相似的激活模式，这将表明，我们最后的共同祖先可能已经存在一个复杂的社交大脑。相反，如果激活模式不同，则表明两个物种已经分化，其中一个或两个物种都在这方面变得专门。智力优势：人类和黑猩猩的社会认知有许多相似之处；然而，对大脑功能的研究尚未扩展到类人猿。这项研究将是第一次对类人猿进行功能性神经成像，提供比较数据，将我们对人类大脑功能和社会认知的认识置于进化框架中。鉴于我们对人类认知的神经基础的了解，我们可以使用非侵入性功能神经成像方法来增加行为数据，以推断其他物种的认知。这些数据将弥合类人猿行为研究和大脑形态学研究之间的差距。更广泛的影响：这项研究是跨学科和协作的，对几个领域有影响。其结果将在专业会议和出版物中广泛传播。它将推进一种新的方法，类人猿功能神经成像，允许将神经科学方法应用于人类学问题。这项研究将为人类无序的社会认知提供一个潜在的比较模型，并将促进女性参与科学。

Social complexity has been suggested as the driving force behind increased brain size, one of the hallmarks of human evolution: brains become larger as social groups become more complex, providing greater cognitive power to monitor and manipulate relationships. This study will evaluate that hypothesis by describing patterns of brain activity related to social cognition in chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and comparing them with those previously described in the much larger human brain. Functional neuroimaging will be used to compare brain activation during social and non-social cognition in five adult chimpanzees. In the social condition, subjects will view a short video depicting chimpanzees engaged in a social interaction (for instance, grooming or playing), and must then choose between a photo of the same type of interaction and a photo of a different interaction. In the non-social condition, subjects will view videos of chimpanzees engaged in non-social behaviors (for instance, feeding or walking), and must choose a photo of the same behavior. These data will be compared with published reports of human brain activation during similar cognitive tasks. This project will illuminate the origins of the neural bases of social cognition in humans and ask whether the patterns of brain function during social cognition in humans are unique to our species, or shared with our closest living relatives. As chimpanzees are our closest living relatives, direct comparison of human and chimpanzee brains is one of the best ways to examine unique aspects of the human brain. If the chimpanzee brain shows similar patterns of activation in response to social stimuli as those of humans, it would suggest that a socially complex brain may have already been present in our last common ancestor. Conversely, if patterns of activation are different, it would suggest that the two species have diverged and one or both have become specialized in this regard.Intellectual merit: Many similarities have been documented between human and chimpanzee social cognition; however, the study of brain function has not yet been extended to great apes. This study will be among the first to use functional neuroimaging with great apes, providing comparative data to place our knowledge of human brain function and social cognition in an evolutionary framework. Given what we know about the neural bases of human cognition, we can use non-invasive functional neuroimaging methods to augment behavioral data in making inferences about cognition in other species. These data will bridge the gap between studies of behavior and studies of brain morphology in apes.Broader impact: This research is interdisciplinary and collaborative, with implications for several fields. Its results will be disseminated widely in professional conferences and publications. It will advance a new methodology, functional neuroimaging in great apes, allowing the application of neuroscience methods to anthropological questions. The study will provide a potential comparative model for disordered social cognition in humans, and will foster involvement of women in science.