Comparative cognition

Question 1

In order to have evolution we need

Answer 1

Individuals to differ (variablitity), heritability of some traits, competition - not all offspring survive (environmental pressure)

Question 2

Phenotype

Answer 2

observable traits or characteristics; including morphological structures, neural structures, neural properties and also behaviour - Produced by organism’s genotype in combination with environmental and activity-dependent mechanisms

Question 3

Genotype

Answer 3

Total collection of genes within individual, Genes = the only heritable part of natural selection equations

Question 4

Sources of genetic variation?

Answer 4

Gene mutations - E.g. deletions or substitutions in nucleotide
Chromosome mutation - E.g. recombination
Mendelian variations - Laws of inheritance (dominant vs recessive alleles, etc.)

Question 5

Adaptation

Answer 5

A phenotype arising from genetic variation (mutation) that increases the probability of an individual producing offspring

Question 6

Divergent evolution

Answer 6

Def: process of tracking down 2 or more species to their common ancestor - All mammals have 1 common ancestor and then diverge from lineage - E.g. humans related to monkeys, or mice

Question 7

Homology

Answer 7

resemblance based on common ancestry but adapted to provide different functions e.g. forelimb structures in different mammals

Question 8

Convergent evolution

Answer 8

Independent evolution of similar features in species of different lineage - Responses to similar ecological environment brings out similar features or characteristics E.g. dolphin and shark look similar, but one is a mammal, the other a fish

Question 9

Analogy/analogous structure

Answer 9

similarity of function and superficial resemblance of structures that have different origins

Question 10

Comparing to worms how and why?

Answer 10

Look at behaviour we share (tells us a lot) and how they combine to form more complex behaviour and then look at their genotype, since we know all of theirs

Question 11

Comparing to closely related species and why?

Answer 11

Closely related species to us and see how they developed differently in adaptation to their environment. Humans and chimpanzees are >99.1% identical at the coding sequence level, Our common ancestor lived 4-6 million years ago. We cannot compare to humans 10 000 years ago.

Question 12

Comparing to those with outstanding features and specialized skill?

Answer 12

Look at specialized animals that are adapted intricately to their environment, how to relate brain structure to physical structure (Body) . E.g. platypus: senses movement in water due to changes in electrical field  huge part of its cortex devoted to that but visual and auditory system are tiny in comparison

Question 13

Suggestions as to how Saharan ants measure distance

Answer 13

Energy hypothesis, optic flow hypothesis, time-lapse integrator.

Question 14

Saharan desert ant study by whom and results?

Answer 14

Wittlinger, Wehner & Wolf (2006): caught ants when they found pray and manipulated length of their legs: Stump group: undershot, Control group: correct, Stilt group: overshot

Question 15

Nutcracker bird

Answer 15

Buries 30,000 nuts for later and marks spot with a stone for 3 weeks (nuts only in season for 3 weeks), For next 6 months (winter) finds 90% of nuts in snow, just with his mental map

Question 16

Sherry et al (1989), food storing bird

Answer 16

food storing bird (filled triangle) have almost twice the size of hippocampus of non-food storing birds (open triangle) - Example of selection pressure on these birds

Question 17

Principles of conservation

Answer 17

1. If a structure/ system (e.g. cortex) has become an essential adaptive unit for one species, the essential features of this unit are conserved in all of the evolutionary descendants 2.General rule: the relative size of brain region is good guide to the importance of functions of the region for survival

Question 18

Allometry

Answer 18

How traits or processes scale with one another

Question 19

Encephalization Quotient

Answer 19

how far do we deviate from expectations

Question 20

Cortex expansion and social groups + implications?

Answer 20

Positive relationship between neocortex size and various social groups sizes - Scaling brain (or a brain component) size against body size = extent to which organisms invest in brain tissue - Scaling one brain part (e.g. neocortex) against another should reveal neurocognitive specialisation (Barton, 2006)

Question 21

Neuronal density

Answer 21

how tightly neurons are packed in the brain, Hard to do in different species, Humans tent to keep the density no matter how big the brain gets different to other species

Question 22

Roth & Dicke (2005) claim cognition depends

Answer 22

Cognition depends on an absolute feature of the brain e.g. total number of cortical neurons & conduction velocity of fibers, this approach is limited

Question 23

Cortico-cerebellar connection (Barton, 2006)

Answer 23

importance of integrated functions of these two structures, suggests subject to similar selective pressures & evolve concertedly / FUNCTION: Sensory-motor coordination, Planning of movements: learning, including complex sequences of behaviour, “Adaptive control” within environment

Question 24

Paritetal cortical regions with reciprocal cerebellar connections

Answer 24

Visually guided hand movement, motor planning, verbal processing and storage, spatial navigation

Question 25

Frontal/prefrontal cortical regions with reciprocal cerebellar connections

Answer 25

Language, working memory, directed attention, planning

Question 26

Occipital function?

Answer 26

Visual/visuo-motor

Question 27

Functional circuits

Answer 27

Areas of our brain that evolved together to support special skills