Insects As Models for Studying the Evolution of Animal Cognition
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Individual Versus Collective Cognition in Social Insects
Individual versus collective cognition in social insects Ofer Feinermanᴥ, Amos Kormanˠ ᴥ Department of Physics of Complex Systems, Weizmann Institute of Science, 7610001, Rehovot, Israel. Email: [email protected] ˠ Institut de Recherche en Informatique Fondamentale (IRIF), CNRS and University Paris Diderot, 75013, Paris, France. Email: [email protected] Abstract The concerted responses of eusocial insects to environmental stimuli are often referred to as collective cognition on the level of the colony.To achieve collective cognitiona group can draw on two different sources: individual cognitionand the connectivity between individuals.Computation in neural-networks, for example,is attributedmore tosophisticated communication schemes than to the complexity of individual neurons. The case of social insects, however, can be expected to differ. This is since individual insects are cognitively capable units that are often able to process information that is directly relevant at the level of the colony.Furthermore, involved communication patterns seem difficult to implement in a group of insects since these lack clear network structure.This review discusses links between the cognition of an individual insect and that of the colony. We provide examples for collective cognition whose sources span the full spectrum between amplification of individual insect cognition and emergent group-level processes. Introduction The individuals that make up a social insect colony are so tightly knit that they are often regarded as a single super-organism(Wilson and Hölldobler, 2009). This point of view seems to go far beyond a simple metaphor(Gillooly et al., 2010)and encompasses aspects of the colony that are analogous to cell differentiation(Emerson, 1939), metabolic rates(Hou et al., 2010; Waters et al., 2010), nutrient regulation(Behmer, 2009),thermoregulation(Jones, 2004; Starks et al., 2000), gas exchange(King et al., 2015), and more. -
Andy Clark and His Critics
Andy Clark and His Critics E D I T E D BY MATTEO COLOMBO ELIZABETH IRVINE and MOG STAPLETON 1 1 Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide. Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and certain other countries. Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press 198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016, United States of America. © Oxford University Press 2019 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, by license, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reproduction rights organization. Inquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above. You must not circulate this work in any other form and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer. CIP data is on file at the Library of Congress ISBN 978– 0– 19– 066281– 3 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Printed by Sheridan Books, Inc., United States of America CONTENTS Foreword ix Daniel C. Dennett Acknowledgements xi List of Contributors xiii Introduction 1 Matteo Colombo, Liz Irvine, and Mog Stapleton PART 1 EXTENSIONS AND ALTERATIONS 1. Extended Cognition and Extended Consciousness 9 David J. Chalmers 2. The Elusive Extended Mind: Extended Information Processing Doesn’t Equal Extended Mind 21 Fred Adams 3. -
Current Perspectives in Cognitive Processing by Domesticated Animals
EDITORIAL published: 23 August 2021 doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.736717 Editorial: Current Perspectives in Cognitive Processing by Domesticated Animals Katherine Bruce 1†, David A. Leavens 2† and Sarah T. Boysen 3,4*† 1 Department of Psychology, University of North Carolina at Wilmington, Wilmington, NC, United States, 2 School of Psychology, University of Sussex, Brighton, United Kingdom, 3 Center for Animal Welfare Science, Department of Pathobiology, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, United States, 4 Comparative Cognition Project, Sunbury, OH, United States Keywords: animal cognition, animals, non-human cognition, cognitive processing, behavior Editorial on the Research Topic Current Perspectives in Cognitive Processing by Domesticated Animals Recently, studies of cognitive processing in domestic animals, especially dogs, seem to have increased exponentially, and research with more typical laboratory animals, such as rats, pigeons, and non-human primates seems to be declining. Funding for behavioral and/or cognitive work with animals has always been challenging, and as costs for animal housing, care, and per diems have increased significantly in the past two decades, researchers have looked to other subject pools that do not require major funding for conducting relevant and important studies that can contribute significantly to our field. Thus, companion animals, notably dogs, have become an important Edited and reviewed by: resource for studies of animal cognition, as well as other accessible and less-studied species like Watanabe Shigeru, goats, horses, and pigs, among others. The Research Topic, entitled “Current Perspectives in Keio University, Japan Cognitive Processing in Domestic Animals,” included 10 papers covering a range of topics and *Correspondence: species, with summaries of each paper provided here. -
Minds Without Spines: Evolutionarily Inclusive Animal Ethics
Animal Sentience 2020.329: Mikhalevich & Powell on Invertebrate Minds Call for Commentary: Animal Sentience publishes Open Peer Commentary on all accepted target articles. Target articles are peer-reviewed. Commentaries are editorially reviewed. There are submitted commentaries as well as invited commentaries. Commentaries appear as soon as they have been reviewed, revised and accepted. Target article authors may respond to their commentaries individually or in a joint response to multiple commentaries. INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMMENTATORS Minds without spines: Evolutionarily inclusive animal ethics Irina Mikhalevich Department of Philosophy, Rochester Institute of Technology Russell Powell Department of Philosophy, Boston University Abstract: Invertebrate animals are frequently lumped into a single category and denied welfare protections despite their considerable cognitive, behavioral, and evolutionary diversity. Some ethical and policy inroads have been made for cephalopod molluscs and crustaceans, but the vast majority of arthropods, including the insects, remain excluded from moral consideration. We argue that this exclusion is unwarranted given the existing evidence. Anachronistic readings of evolution, which view invertebrates as lower in the scala naturae, continue to influence public policy and common morality. The assumption that small brains are unlikely to support cognition or sentience likewise persists, despite growing evidence that arthropods have converged on cognitive functions comparable to those found in vertebrates. The exclusion of invertebrates is also motivated by cognitive-affective biases that covertly influence moral judgment, as well as a flawed balancing of scientific uncertainty against moral risk. All these factors shape moral attitudes toward basal vertebrates too, but they are particularly acute in the arthropod context. Moral consistency dictates that the same standards of evidence and risk management that justify policy protections for vertebrates also support extending moral consideration to certain invertebrates. -
Benvenuti, Anne (2017) Evolutionary Continuity. Animal Sentience 20(4) DOI: 10.51291/2377-7478.1287
Benvenuti, Anne (2017) Evolutionary continuity. Animal Sentience 20(4) DOI: 10.51291/2377-7478.1287 This article has appeared in the journal Animal Sentience, a peer-reviewed journal on animal cognition and feeling. It has been made open access, free for all, by WellBeing International and deposited in the WBI Studies Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Animal Sentience 2017.092: Benvenuti on Peña-Guzmán on Animal Suicide Evolutionary continuity Commentary on Peña-Guzmán on Animal Suicide Anne Benvenuti University of Winchester Abstract: The principle of evolutionary continuity states that all animal capacities and behaviors exist — with variations in degree — in continuity with other species. Rather than assuming discontinuity, we should ask why any behavior observed in humans would not be found in at least some other sentient animals under similar conditions. In the case of suicide, the more pertinent issue might be the ethical one: our human responsibility for creating conditions under which other animals might deliberately seek to end their own lives. Keywords: evolutionary continuity, animal behavior, animal consciousness, animal grief, animal suicide Anne Benvenuti is the author of Spirit Unleashed: Reimagining Human-Animal Relations. An instructor of critical thinking, she works at the intersections of evolutionary biology, psychology, neuroscience, and philosophy. She is currently focused on articulating the implications of evolutionary continuity for human relations with nonhuman animals. www.annebenvenuti.com Peña-Guzmán (2017) asks whether animals are capable of suicide, citing established philosophical notions of forethought and intention in the definition of suicide. The idea is that one must form the intention intellectually and then choose freely and deliberately to bring about one’s own death. -
Putting the Ecology Back Into Insect Cognition Research Mathieu Lihoreau, Thibaud Dubois, Tamara Gomez-Moracho, Stéphane Kraus, Coline Monchanin, Cristian Pasquaretta
Putting the ecology back into insect cognition research Mathieu Lihoreau, Thibaud Dubois, Tamara Gomez-Moracho, Stéphane Kraus, Coline Monchanin, Cristian Pasquaretta To cite this version: Mathieu Lihoreau, Thibaud Dubois, Tamara Gomez-Moracho, Stéphane Kraus, Coline Monchanin, et al.. Putting the ecology back into insect cognition research. Advances in insect physiology, Academic Press, Inc., In press, 57, pp.1 - 25. 10.1016/bs.aiip.2019.08.002. hal-02324976 HAL Id: hal-02324976 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-02324976 Submitted on 4 Jan 2021 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. 1 Ecology and evolution of insect cognition 2 3 Putting the ecology back into insect cognition 4 research 5 6 Mathieu Lihoreau1†, Thibault Dubois1,2*, Tamara Gomez-Moracho1*, Stéphane Kraus1*, 7 Coline Monchanin1,2*, Cristian Pasquaretta1* 8 9 1Research Center on Animal Cognition (CRCA), Center for Integrative Biology (CBI); 10 CNRS, University Paul Sabatier, Toulouse, France 11 2Department of Biological Sciences, Macquarie University, NSW, Australia 12 13 * These authors contributed equally to the work 14 † Corresponding author: [email protected] 15 16 1 17 Abstract 18 Over the past decades, research on insect cognition has made considerable advances in 19 describing the ability of model species (in particular bees and fruit flies) to achieve cognitive 20 tasks once thought to be unique to vertebrates, and investigating how these may be 21 implemented in a miniature brain. -
Comparative Cognition & Behavior Reviews
DOI: 10.3819/ccbr.2015.100004 Volume 10, 2015 Comparative Cognition & Behavior Reviews Experimental Divergences in the Visual Cognition of Birds and Mammals Muhammad A. J. Qadri & Robert G. Cook Department of Psychology, Tufts University The comparative analysis of visual cognition across classes of animals yields important information regarding underlying cognitive and neural mechanisms involved with this foundational aspect of behavior. Birds, and pigeons specifically, have been an important source and model for this comparison, especially in relation to mammals. During these investigations, an extensive number of experiments have found divergent results in how pigeons and humans process visual information. Four areas of these divergences are collected, reviewed, and analyzed. We examine the potential contribution and limitations of experimental, spatial, and attentional factors in the interpretation of these findings and their implications for mechanisms of visual cognition in birds and mammals. Recommendations are made to help advance these comparisons in service of understanding the general principles by which different classes and species generate representations of the visual world. Keywords: Pigeons; Humans; Visual cognition; Spatial attention; Perceptual grouping; Perceptual completion; Visual illusions Visual cognition is critical to the behavior of complex 1962; Lettvin, Maturana, McCulloch, & Pitts, 1959; Reich- animals. It generates the working internal cognitive repre- ardt, 1987). An appreciation of the entire spectrum of visu- sentations of the external world that guide action, orien- ally driven cognitive systems and how vision is imple- tation, and navigation. The extensive study of the human mented in different nervous systems is key to a complete animal has dominated the theoretical and empirical inves- and general understanding of the evolution, operations, tigations of vision and visual cognition (Palmer, 1999). -
Optimizing Laboratory Rearing of a Key Pollinator, Bombus Impatiens
insects Article Optimizing Laboratory Rearing of a Key Pollinator, Bombus impatiens Erin Treanore * , Katherine Barie, Nathan Derstine, Kaitlin Gadebusch, Margarita Orlova , Monique Porter, Frederick Purnell and Etya Amsalem Department of Entomology, Center for Chemical Ecology, Center for Pollinator Research, Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA; [email protected] (K.B.); [email protected] (N.D.); [email protected] (K.G.); [email protected] (M.O.); [email protected] (M.P.); [email protected] (F.P.); [email protected] (E.A.) * Correspondence: [email protected] Simple Summary: Rearing insects in captivity is critical for both research and commercial purposes. One group of insects that stands out for their ecological and scientific importance are bumble bees. However, most research studies with bumble bees rely on commercial colonies due to the challenges associated with initiating colonies in the laboratory. This limits the ability to study the early stages of the colony life cycle and the ability to control for variables such as colony age and relatedness. To overcome these challenges, we tested several aspects related to the solitary phase of the North American bumble bee species, Bombus impatiens. In this species, queens emerge by the end of the season, mate, and enter a winter diapause. They then initiate a colony the next spring. We examined the optimal age for mating and how the timing of CO2 narcosis (a technique used to bypass diapause) and social cues post-mating affect queen egg laying. We demonstrate an optimum age for mating in males and females and the importance of worker and pupa presence to egg laying in queens. -
Convergent Cognitive Evolution: What Can Be Learnt from Comparisons with Corvids and Cephalopods?
Convergent cognitive evolution: what can be learnt from comparisons with corvids and cephalopods? Piero Amodio Sidney Sussex College University of Cambridge February 2020 Supervisors: Nicola S. Clayton & Ljerka Ostojić This thesis is submitted for the degree of Doctor or Philosophy Preface This thesis is the result of my own work and includes nothing which is the outcome of work done in collaboration except as stated in the Declaration and specified in the text. This thesis is not substantially the same as any work that I have submitted before, or, is being concurrently submitted for any degree or other qualification at the University of Cambridge or any other University or similar institution except as declared in the Preface and specified in the text. I further state that no substantial part of my thesis has already been submitted, or, is being concurrently submitted for any such degree, diploma or other qualification at the University of Cambridge or any other University or similar institution except as declared in the Preface and specified in the text. This thesis does not exceed the prescribed word limit for the relevant Degree Committee. ii PhD Candidate Piero Amodio, Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge Thesis title Convergent cognitive evolution: what can be learnt from comparisons with corvids and cephalopods? Summary Emery and Clayton (2004) proposed that corvids (e.g. crows, ravens, jays) may have evolved – convergently with apes – flexible and domain general cognitive tool-kits. In a similar vein, others have suggested that coleoid cephalopods (octopus, cuttlefish, squid) may have developed complex cognition convergently with large-brained vertebrates but current evidence is not sufficient to fully evaluate these propositions. -
C the JOURNAL of PHILOSOPHY C Master Proof JOP
. c c THE JOURNAL OF PHILOSOPHY volume 0, no. 0, 2008 . c c INSECTS AND THE PROBLEM OF SIMPLE MINDS: ARE BEES NATURAL ZOMBIES? hich animals consciously experience the world through their senses, and which are mere robots, blindly processing W the information delivered by their “sensors”? There is little agreement about where, indeed, even if, we should draw a firm line demarcating conscious awareness (that is, phenomenal awareness, subjectivity, what-it-is-like-ness) from nonconscious zombiehood (what Ned Block calls “access” consciousness).1 I will assume that the solu- tion to what Michael Tye calls the “problem of simple minds” and what Peter Carruthers calls the “distribution problem,” does not re- quire us to conceive of consciousness as a graded or “penumbral” phenomenon.2 Tye is on the right track when he writes that “[s]ome- where down the phylogenetic scale phenomenal consciousness ceases. But where?” (op. cit., p. 171). That is a tough question, though per- haps not intractable. I want to sketch an empirically driven proposal for removing some puzzlement about the distribution of conscious- ness in the animal world. Perhaps we can make progress on Tye’s question by exploiting analogues between the residual abilities found in the dissociative phenomenon of blindsight, and the visual and other sensory functions in certain animals. I want to develop the idea that we quite likely can distinguish conscious from nonconscious awareness in the animal world, and in so doing identify creatures that are naturally blindsighted.3 1 Block, “On a Confusion about a Function of Consciousness,” in Block, Owen Flanagan, and Guven Güzeldere, eds., The Nature of Consciousness: Philosophical Debates (Cambridge: MIT, 1995). -
Animal Consciousness
The Distribution and Evolution of Animal Consciousness By Joseph Vitti Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Arts with Honors in Philosophy Harvard University March 26, 2010 1 © Joseph Vitti 2010 Contents Chapter One Preliminaries of Animal Consciousness . 3 Chapter Two Towards a Function of Consciousness: Evolutionary Considerations and Global Workspace Theory . 13 Chapter Three From the Theoretical to the Empirical: The Broadcast Hypothesis, Modularity, and Associative Learning . 27 Chapter Four Evidence of Associative Capacities and Consciousness Across the Animal Kingdom . 35 Chapter Five Animal Consciousness and Ethics . 50 References . 59 2 © Joseph Vitti 2010 CHAPTER 1 Preliminaries of Animal Consciousness Which nonhuman animals (hereafter: animals) are conscious? Many people distinguish first between primary consciousness – which includes awareness of percepts, sensations, immediate thoughts and so on – and higher-order consciousness – which refers to awareness of one's primary awareness, or “thought about thought” (Edelman, 2003). A number of experimental paradigms have been devised in recent years to identify higher-order consciousness in animals (particularly primates, cetaceans, and birds), but the study of primary consciousness is somewhat more elusive. In what follows, I will use the term 'consciousness' to refer to primary consciousness. What does it mean to be a conscious animal? One oft-cited definition is the one Nagel invoked when he asked what it is like to be a bat (1974). An organism or a mental process can be said to be conscious if there is something that it is like to be that organism or to be undergoing that process; essential to consciousness is its phenomenal, experiential, or qualitative feel. -
26Th Annual International Conference on Comparative Cognition
26th Annual International Conference on Comparative Cognition Sponsored by the Comparative Cognition Society April 10th to 13th, 2019 Radisson Hotel Melbourne Beach, Florida President Steve Fountain Conference Organizers Kent Bodily, Lauren Guillette Secretary Ken Leising Treasurer Mike Brown Program Committee Lauren Guillette (Chair), Kent Bodily, Jonathon Crystal, Jeffrey Katz, Suzanne MacDonald, W. David Stahlman Team CO3 Erin Baum, Katherine Dyer, Vincent Edwards, Claire Jackman, Jeremy Jasmer, Jessica Sharp, Tanya Shoot, Caroline Strang Awards Committee David Brodbeck (Chair), Bob Cook, Marisa Hoeschele, Olga Lazareva, Reggie Gazes, Chris Sturdy Member-at-Large Noam Miller Past Presidents Olga Lazareva , Debbie Kelly, Mike Brown, Bob Cook, Jonathon Crystal, Jeffrey Katz, Suzanne MacDonald, Marcia Spetch, Ed Wasserman, Ron Weisman, Tom Zentall 1 | P a g e CO3 2019 Abstracts & Presenter Index Contents Wednesday Talks .......................................................................................................................................... 2 Thursday Talks.............................................................................................................................................. 7 Friday Talks ................................................................................................................................................ 15 Saturday Talks ............................................................................................................................................ 19 Thursday