The evolution of cognitive control in lemurs

Cognitive control, or executive function, is a key feature of human cognition, allowing individuals to plan, acquire new information, or adopt new strategies when the circumstances change. Yet it is unclear which factors promote the evolution of more sophisticated executive function abilities like those possessed by humans. Examining cognitive control in non-human primates, our closest relatives, can help to identify these evolutionary processes. Here we developed a novel battery to experimentally measure multiple aspects of cognitive control in primates: temporal discounting, motor inhibition, short-term memory, reversal learning, novelty responses, and persistence. We tested lemur species with targeted, independent variation in both ecological and social features (ruffed lemurs, Coquerel’s sifakas, ring-tailed lemurs and mongoose lemurs, N = 39 lemurs), and found that ecological rather than social characteristics best predicted patterns of cognitive control across these species. This ...,
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认知控制（cognitive control）又称执行功能（executive function），是人类认知的核心特征，可使个体在环境变化时开展规划、获取新信息或采用新策略。目前尚不明确究竟哪些因素推动了人类所具备的这类更复杂执行功能能力的演化。对我们的近亲——非人灵长类的认知控制展开研究，有助于厘清这些演化进程。
本研究开发了一套全新的实验组合范式，用于实验性地量化灵长类认知控制的多个维度：时间折扣（temporal discounting）、运动抑制（motor inhibition）、短时记忆（short-term memory）、逆转学习（reversal learning）、新奇反应（novelty responses）以及持续性行为（persistence）。我们针对生态与社会特征均存在针对性独立变异的狐猴物种开展了测试（受试对象包括领狐猴（ruffed lemurs）、Coquerel氏冕狐猴（Coquerel’s sifakas）、环尾狐猴（ring-tailed lemurs）与蒙狐猴（mongoose lemurs），共39只狐猴），结果发现，相较于社会特征，生态特征能够更好地预测这些物种间的认知控制模式。本研究部分内容暂未完整呈现……
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