Are we humans simply remodelled apes? Chimps with a tweak? Is the difference between our genomes so minuscule it justifies the argument that our cognition and behaviour must also differ from chimps by barely a whisker? If “chimps are us” should we grant them human rights? Or is this one of the biggest fallacies in the study of evolution? NOT A CHIMP argues that these similarities have been grossly over-exaggerated - we should keep chimps at arm’s length. Are humans cognitively unique after all?
Thursday, 7 January 2010
FoxP2 Is Actively Regulated During Songbird Sensorimotor Learning
In NOT A CHIMP I explain how Stephanie White and Constance Sharff researched the role of FOXP2 in song acquistion by song-birds, and the areas in the bird brain in which it is active. In this follow-up paper in PLoS One, which is very detailed, White goes on to look at the interaction between FOXP2 expression levels, principally in Area X in zebra finch brain, not only when the circuits associated with song are being sculpted, but during vocal learning. As I point out, young birds learn their songs from a mentor adult bird, and produce a high fidelity copy of the adult song before further elaboration sculpts it to personal taste. Here, White et al show a complex interaction between hearing and vocal production in which FOXP2 production is down-regulated during the highly variable period of song acquisition which precedes the final rendition. Birds that are the most variable in song during this learning process end up with the better quality finished songs.
The Secret Life Of The Dog
Here is the iPlayer link to a very good edition of Horizon from last night, which deals with the evolution of the peculiar form of human-oriented social intelligence we call dog behaviour. The question of how dogs evolved from wolves is dealt with, as is Belyaev's Arctic fox domestication experiment - all as appears in THE APE THAT DOMESTICATED ITSELF in the book.
The programme stresses the point that wolf-cubs cannot be tamed by simply being brought up in human care. With the onset of adulthood comes selfish, unruly behaviour. Although dogs evolved from some sort of wolf, the process took many thousands of years and involved profound changes in neuro-endocrine circuits that resulted in relative loss of aggression, tolerance of the presence of humans, and enhanced and acute attention to human emotions and communicative signals. The neotenization of dogs, I argue in NOT A CHIMP, tells us a great deal about processes that might have come about in human evolution.
The programme stresses the point that wolf-cubs cannot be tamed by simply being brought up in human care. With the onset of adulthood comes selfish, unruly behaviour. Although dogs evolved from some sort of wolf, the process took many thousands of years and involved profound changes in neuro-endocrine circuits that resulted in relative loss of aggression, tolerance of the presence of humans, and enhanced and acute attention to human emotions and communicative signals. The neotenization of dogs, I argue in NOT A CHIMP, tells us a great deal about processes that might have come about in human evolution.
MAOA Gene Variants Associated With Longshot Risk-taking
Neurochemistry and economic theory move more closely together thanks to this paper and the cadre of research it acknowledges. The authors set out to address a problem that appears to have long perplexed economic theorists, which is why and how the same actor or person indulges in longshot risk-taking (backing a rank outsider like a horse at very long odds, or buying a lottery ticket) with risk-averse behaviour like the purchase of insurance. "Why do people concurrently buy lottery and insurance?" the authors ask, "valuing longshot bets with higher odds more than favourites with lower odds when, overall, payoffs are similar....(whereas) insurance customers are risk averse in paying more than the expected loss to shift their liability for loss to the insurance company".
The authors refer specifically to research I deal with in NOT A CHIMP, by Mayer-Lindenberg, who showed that low-expression variants of the MAOA gene predicted the fear-centres of the brain, the amydalae, would be hyper-responsive to stimuli, and less regulated by the pre-frontal regions of the brain, leading to hyper-vigilance and anxiety in the individual concerned. Based on this, they hypothesized that individuals with the high-activity variant of MAOA would show a preference for longshot and be less disposed to purchasing insurance. This is what they found. They conclude: "With more empirical validation of our neurogenetic results suggesting that individual differences in preference over longshot risks are partially hard-wired traits, the stage is set for testing their implication in institutional and market settings."
The authors refer specifically to research I deal with in NOT A CHIMP, by Mayer-Lindenberg, who showed that low-expression variants of the MAOA gene predicted the fear-centres of the brain, the amydalae, would be hyper-responsive to stimuli, and less regulated by the pre-frontal regions of the brain, leading to hyper-vigilance and anxiety in the individual concerned. Based on this, they hypothesized that individuals with the high-activity variant of MAOA would show a preference for longshot and be less disposed to purchasing insurance. This is what they found. They conclude: "With more empirical validation of our neurogenetic results suggesting that individual differences in preference over longshot risks are partially hard-wired traits, the stage is set for testing their implication in institutional and market settings."
Monday, 4 January 2010
Dolphins Should Be Treated As "Non-Human Persons"
Happy New Year everyone. I kick off with a somewhat potty story about a bevy of recent psychological research work on dolphins which appears to have led several scientists to claim that dolphins should be treated as "non-human persons". The research shows dolphins are capable of inspecting their bodies using mirrors, are capable of rudimentary symbolic communication, can learn novel behaviours and learn them from each other, and have advanced brain structure comparable with our own. So far - totally respectable - and an overdue outlier comparison with chimpanzees. Unfortunately, pace chimps, it has led to the ridiculous notion that they are "persons". The concept of person-hood is specific to humans and, as I have argued in NOT A CHIMP and elsewhere, is at best a diversion from effective attempts to conserve dolphins and accord them humane treatment. Dolphins, like chimps, are very intelligent social animals but they are NOT human and it helps them not one iota to pretend that, because of their comparative cognition, they are some form of watered-down or nearly-human and therefore deserve some form of human rights.