SEARCH · PubMed Health

Results for “Brain evolution”

Explore indexed PubMed citations for clinical trials, systematic reviews and public health research. Read source abstracts and follow each citation to its original PubMed record.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 847 records · Page 47Linked to original sources

PubMed2003

A neuroscientific grasp of concepts: from control to representation.

Abstraction denotes the cognitive process by means of which general concepts are formed. The dominant view of abstraction considers it not only as a complex and sophisticated cognitive activity, but also as a distinctive hallmark of mankind. The distinctiveness of abstract thought has indeed been closely related to another feature peculiar to our species: language. Following this perspective, the possibility to entertain conceptual representations is thus precluded to animals devoid of full-blown language. I challenge this view and propose that the representational dynamic of the brain is conceivable as a type of self-organization, in which action plays a crucial part. My aim will be to investigate whether, and to what extent, conceptual knowledge can be attributed to non-linguistic animal species, with particular emphasis on nonhuman primates. I therefore introduce the notion of semantic content as a type of 'relational specification'. A review of recent neurophysiological data on the neural underpinnings of action end-states in the macaque monkey brain is presented. On the basis of this evidence, I propose that conceptual representations can be conceived as the expression of a coherent internal world model. This model decomposes the 'outer' space inhabited by things in a meaningful way only to the extent that it accords to biologically constrained, embodied invariance. Finally, I discuss how the 'comparative' neuroscientific approach to abstraction proposed here may shed some light on its nature and its evolutionary origin.

Animals↗

PubMed1993

Evidence for two additional isoforms of the endogenous protein kinase inhibitor of cAMP-dependent protein kinase in mouse.

Oligonucleotides derived from the previously published rat testicular protein kinase inhibitor (PKI) sequence (Van Patten, S. M., Ng, D. C., Th'ng, J. P. H., Angelos, K. L., Smith, A. J., and Walsh, D. A. (1991) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 88, 5383-5387) were used to isolate a DNA fragment coding for a mouse homologue of the rat testicular PKI. This DNA fragment was then used to screen a mouse brain cDNA library, and two cDNA clones related to the testicular PKI (PKI beta) were isolated. Sequencing and comparison showed that the two cDNAs differ only in the presence of a 105-base pair insert, which results in an amino-terminal extension of the predicted PKI beta 2 protein by 20 residues relative to the PKI beta 1 protein. By using the appropriate primers, PCR was used to amplify specific regions of both of these clones from mouse brain cDNA. When both clones were expressed in vitro, the mRNA for PKI beta 2 produced a protein product that was larger and much more effectively translated, suggesting a functional role for the inserted sequence. Both isoforms were transiently expressed in COS-1 cells to evaluate their ability to inhibit the catalytic subunit of PKA in vivo. Extracts from cells expressing the PKI beta 2 isoform showed greater inhibition of catalytic subunit kinase activity than extracts expressing the PKI beta 1 isoform. Northern blot analysis of poly(A)+ RNA from various mouse tissues showed the presence of transcripts of 1.8 kilobases related to these cDNAs. Analysis of brain RNA from several species indicated that expression of these PKI mRNAs is evolutionarily conserved. Together with previous studies, these results indicate the presence of at least three PKI proteins in mouse. The skeletal muscle isoform has been designated PKI alpha, while the testicular isoform is PKI beta. We propose to designate the two testicular isoforms described here PKI beta 1 and PKI beta 2.

Amino Acid Sequence↗

PubMed1994

[McLean's theory. Which brain model for which psychiatric practice?].

The aim of this paper is to present the evolutionary considerations of McLean about the "Triune Brain". This author described by this term a hierarchy of three-brains-in-one, consisted by three evolutionary formations, radically different in structure and in chemistry. They are characterized as reptilian, paleomammalian, and neomammalian. Each of them plays an important role in the regulation of behavior, but there heterogeneity can induce schizophreniform ideas and feelings. Mc Lean speculations about Psychiatry emphasize genetic and biological factors in the genesis of mental disorders and lead to neglect the role of socio-cultural and familial factors.

Biological Evolution↗

PubMed2000

Neuropsychological mechanisms of interval timing behavior.

Interval timing in the seconds-to-minutes range is believed to underlie a variety of complex behaviors in humans and other animals. One of the more interesting problems in interval timing is trying to understand how the brain times events lasting for minutes with millisecond-based neural processes. Timing models proposing the use of coincidence-detection mechanisms (e.g., the detection of simultaneous activity across multiple neural inputs) appear to be the most compatible with known neural mechanisms. From an evolutionary perspective, coincidence detection of neuronal activity may be a fundamental mechanism of timing that is expressed across a wide variety of species. BioEssays 22:94-103, 2000.

Animals↗

PubMed1995

Working memory networks and the origin of language areas in the human brain.

Temporoparietal-prefrontal working memory networks are proposed as fundamental in the evolutionary origin of the language regions. Having a primordial capacity to name objects or situations, primitive hominids may have strongly benefited from the possibility to recall past events from memory, in order to refer to them through vocal communication. Working memory cortical networks are related to these types of tasks, and are arranged quite similarly to the language networks in the brain. It is possible that the language areas and their connections arose as a local specialization of these large-scale cortical networks, that developed as neural strategies to recall past events to be shared in community. The origin of syntax may have taken place after these networks were sufficiently stabilized, and (at least originally) may have been related to aspects of vocal motor control, involving the progressive differentiation of the anterior language areas and their connections.

Biological Evolution↗

PubMed1998

Complementary right and left hemifield use for predatory and agonistic behaviour in toads.

Cerebral lateralization, the differing specializations of the right and left sides of the brain once thought to be unique of humans, is now well known to occur in both birds and mammals. Here we report that in toads the right hemisfield of vision guides predatory tongue-striking responses towards moving prey and the left hemisfield guides agnostic tongue-striking responses towards conspecifics. This indicates, for the first time, complementary cerebral specializations for visual processing in anurans, and strongly supports the hypothesis that lateralized brain functions in birds and mammals may have arisen from a common lateralized ancestor. Complementary specializations in visual processing may have originally evolved to avoid problem of response competition during control of medial organs such as the tongue in organisms with laterally placed eyes and, in organisms with wider binocular overlap, it appears to be retained for initial detection of stimuli in the extreme lateral fields.

Agonistic Behavior↗

PubMed2006

Understanding eating disorders.

The outcome in eating disorders remains poor and commonly used methods of treatment have little, if any effect. It is suggested that this situation has emerged because of the failure to realize that the symptoms of eating disorder patients are epiphenomena to starvation and the associated disordered eating. Humans have evolved to cope with the challenge of starvation and the neuroendocrine mechanisms that have been under this evolutionary pressure are anatomically versatile and show synaptic plasticity to allow for flexibility. Many of the neuroendocrine changes in starvation are responses to the externally imposed shortage of food and the associated neuroendocrine secretions facilitate behavioral adaptation as needed rather than make an individual merely eat more or less food. A parsimonious, neurobiologically realistic explanation why eating disorders develop and why they are maintained is offered. It is suggested that the brain mechanisms of reward are activated when food intake is reduced and that disordered eating behavior is subsequently maintained by conditioning to the situations in which the disordered eating behavior developed via the neural system for attention. In a method based on this framework, patients are taught how to eat normally, their physical activity is controlled and they are provided with external heat. The method has been proven effective in a randomized controlled trial.

Anorexia↗

PubMed1996

Race, genetics, and human reproductive strategies.

The international literature on racial differences is reviewed, novel data are reported, and a distinct pattern is found. People of east Asian ancestry and people of African ancestry average at opposite ends of a continuum, with people of European ancestry averaging intermediately, albeit with much variability within each major race. The racial matrix emerges from measures taken of reproductive behavior, sex hormones, twinning rate, speed of physical maturation, personality, family stability, brain size, intelligence, law abidingness, and social organization. An evolutionary theory of human reproduction is proposed, familiar to biologists as the r-K scale of reproductive strategies. At one end of this scale are r-strategies, which emphasize high reproductive rates; at the other end are K-strategies, which emphasize high levels of parental investment. This scale is generally used to compare the life histories of widely disparate species, but here it is used to describe the immensely smaller variations among human races. It is hypothesized that, again on average, Mongoloid people are more K-selected than Caucasoids, who are more K-selected than Negroids. The r-K scale of reproductive strategies is also mapped on to human evolution. Genetic distances indicate that Africans emerged from the ancestral hominid line about 200,000 years ago, with an African/non-African split about 110,000 years ago, and a Caucasoid/Mongoloid split about 41,000 years ago. Such an ordering fits with and explains how and why the variables cluster.

Biological Evolution↗

PubMed2006

Alienation, recovered animism and altered states of consciousness.

Alienation is the feeling that life is 'meaningless', that we do not belong in the world. But alienation is not an inevitable part of the human condition: some people do feel at one with the world as a consequence of the animistic way of thinking which is shared by children and hunter-gatherers. Animism considers all significant entities to have 'minds', to be 'alive', to be sentient agents. The animistic thinker inhabits a world populated by personal powers including not just other human beings, but also important animals and plants, and significant aspects of physical landscape. Humans belong in this world because it is a web of social relationships. Animism is therefore spontaneous, the 'natural' way of thinking for humans: all humans began as animistic children and for most of human evolutionary history would have grown into animistic adults. It requires sustained, prolonged and pervasive formal education to 'overwrite' animistic thinking with the rationalistic objectivity typical of the modern world. It is this learned abstraction that creates alienation--humans are no longer embedded in a world of social relations but become estranged, adrift in a world of indifferent things. Methods used to cure alienation and recover animistic modes of thinking involve detachment from the social systems that tend to maintain objectivity and rationality: for example, solitude, leisure, unstructured time and direct contact with nature. Many people also achieve similar results by deliberately inducing altered states of consciousness. Animistic thinking may emerge in meditation or contemplation, lucid dreaming, from self-hypnosis, when drowsy, in 'trance states' induced by repetitious rhythm or light, or when delirious due to illness, brain injury, psychoses, or intoxication with 'entheogenic' drugs--which is probably one reason for the perennial popularity of inducing intoxicated states. However, intoxication will typically damage memory processes making it harder to learn from any spiritual experiences; and even mild states of cognitive impairment may be dangerous in situations where skilled or responsible behaviour is required. Despite these constraints and limitations, recovering animism through seeking altered states of consciousness could already be considered a major world spiritual practice.

Adult↗

PubMed1983

The central nervous system of the brachiopterygian fish Erpetoichthys calabaricus.

In this paper a survey is presented of the macrostructure and microstructure of the central nervous system of the brachiopterygian fish Erpetoichthys calabaricus, based partly on personal observations and partly on the literature. The spinal cord resembles in its structural organization that of other fish groups. It is, however, remarkable that at lower levels the ventral and dorsal horns are represented by isolated islands of gray without a zona intermedia. In the rhombencephalon the gray matter is arranged in four longitudinal zones or areas which have been termed area ventralis, area intermedioventralis, area intermediodorsalis and area dorsalis. These longitudinal areas coincide largely, but not entirely, with the so-called functional columns of Herrick and Johnston. The most obvious incongruity is that the area intermediodorsalis contains, in addition to the viscerosensory nucleus o the solitary tract, several somatosensory centres. The cerebellum comprises, apart from a pair of large auriculae, a well developed central body. The latter consists of bilateral symmetrical halves which have invaginated into the ventricular cavity. The rostral part of this central body represents the valvula cerebelli, whereas its caudal part represents the corpus cerebelli. Microscopically, the cerebellum contains a molecular layer, a zone of Purkinje cells and a zone of granule cells, but these structures are not arranged in the usual laminated pattern. The medium-sized mesencephalon comprises a ventral tegmentum and a dorsal tectum. The former can be subdivided into a medial zone and a lateral zone. The medial zone may be considered as a direct rostral continuation of the, mainly somatomotor, rhombencephalic area ventralis. The lateral tegmental zone contains, apart from a rather small torus semicircularis, a huge, submeningeally situated, cell mass, which is known as the torus lateralis. The functional significance of this centre is entirely unknown. The tectum shows a distinct laminar pattern which in some respects is more reminiscent to that of anurans than to that of actinopterygian fishes. The fibre systems in the brain stem and spinal cord have not been studied with experimental techniques so far. However, the following pathways could be clearly distinguished in our normal material: (1) several bundles of primary afferent fibres in the rhombencephalic alar plate, (2) a distinct lateral lemniscus, (3) a large fasciculu longitudinalis medialis, comprising vestibulospinal, vestibulomesencephalic and reticulospinal fibres, as well as the giant fibre of Mauthner, (4) a tectobulbar fibre system, (5) a fasciculus retroflexus, (6) a number of fasciculi tegmentales +

Animals↗

PubMed1996

A missense mutation in the sodium channel Scn8a is responsible for cerebellar ataxia in the mouse mutant jolting.

The voltage-gated sodium channel Scn8a is broadly distributed in brain and spinal cord. We have identified a missense mutation in Scn8a that is associated with cerebellar ataxia in the jolting mutant, a mild allele of the "motor endplate disease" locus. The jolting mutation results in substitution of Thr for an evolutionarily conserved Ala residue in the cytoplasmic S4-S5 linker of domain III. Introduction of the corresponding mutation into the rat brain IIA sodium channel shifted the voltage dependence of activation by 14 mV in the depolarizing direction, without affecting the kinetics of fast inactivation or recovery from inactivation. A shift in the threshold of the Scn8a channel could account for the reduced spontaneous activity of Purkinje cells, reduced inhibitory output from the cerebellum, and loss of motor control observed in jolting mice.

Amino Acid Sequence↗

PubMed1984

The psychobiology of play: theoretical and methodological perspectives.

The social play of pairs of juvenile rats can be brought under tight experimental control using social deprivation, and it can be objectively quantified by measurement of pinning behavior. Research and conceptual issues concerning this paired-encounter procedure are summarized, including issues related to measurement, gender differences (and the absence thereof), relations between play and aggression, the regulatory processes interacting with and underlying play, the neurochemical and neuroanatomical substrates of play, the functions of play in dominance and other adult behaviors. Existing results suggest the operation of a harmoniously operating brain process which generates a unique emotive brain process that is appropriately referred to as social play. Although the concept of play remains to be adequately defined, the position is advocated that rigorous psychobiological analysis will ultimately provide an empirical definition based upon neural circuit characteristics. Analysis of the underlying circuits may help reveal the manner in which more complex levels of behavioral competence arise ontogenically, and work in the area may yield clues to the genesis of several psychopathologies.

Age Factors↗

PubMed1995

Ontogeny of somatostatin-immunoreactive systems in the brain of the brown trout (Teleostei).

The development of somatostatin-immunoreactive neurons and fibres was studied, using immunocytochemistry, in the brain of the brown trout. Somatostatinergic perikarya were found in many regions including several telencephalic areas, the preoptic nucleus, anterior tuberal and lateral tuberal nuclei, the lateral recess nucleus, dorsal tuberal nucleus, the pre- and pseudoglomerular nuclei, central thalamic nucleus, optic tectum, interpeduncular nucleus, several isthmal and reticular nuclei and the solitary fascicle nucleus. The ventrolateral area of the telencephalon and the nucleus lateralis tuberis are the first immunoreactive nuclei to appear in ontogeny, and cells of some telencephalic areas and of the lateral optic recess nucleus, the latest. Somatostatin-immunoreactive fibre tracts innervate the hypophysis and different regions of the brain. The most richly innervated areas in adults are the dorsolateral telencephalic area and the organon vasculosum laminae terminalis. Two patterns of production of somatostatinergic cells were observed: that of populations in which cell numbers increase over the lifetime of the fish, and that of populations whose cell number is established early in development or even diminishes in adulthood. These results provide interesting contrasts to those previously reported in birds and mammals.

Animals↗

PubMed1991

Primary structure of gonadotropin-releasing hormone from the brain of a holocephalan (ratfish: Hydrolagus colliei).

Gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) in the ratfish brain has been isolated and purified using reverse-phase high performance liquid chromatography. Amino acid composition and sequence analysis indicate that the primary structure is pGlu-His-Trp-Ser-His-Gly-Trp-Tyr-Pro-Gly-NH2. The presence of the amino terminal pyroglutamic acid has been confirmed by degradation studies with pyroglutamyl aminopeptidase. The amidated carboxy terminus and molecular weight were confirmed using mass spectrometry. Moreover, sequence comparison and coelution studies with one of the synthetic forms of GnRH (chicken GnRH II) indicate that the ratfish and chicken GnRH II molecules are identical. This represents the first sequence data of a GnRH molecule from a cartilaginous fish (class: Chondrichthyes). It is argued that the ratfish GnRH molecule has been retained for over 400 million years of evolution and is expressed in most vertebrate classes.

Amino Acid Sequence↗

PubMed2000

Localization of two distinct type III phosphatidylinositol 4-kinase enzyme mRNAs in the rat.

Inositol lipid kinases generate polyphosphoinositides, important regulators of several cellular functions. We have recently cloned two distinct phosphatidylinositol (PI) 4-kinase enzymes, the 210-kDa PI4KIIIalpha and the 110-kDa PI4KIIIbeta, from bovine tissues. In the present study, the distribution of mRNAs encoding these two enzymes was analyzed by in situ hybridization histochemistry in the rat. PI4KIIIalpha was found predominantly expressed in the brain, with low expression in peripheral tissues. PI4KIIIbeta was more uniformly expressed being also present in various peripheral tissues. Within the brain, PI4KIIIbeta showed highest expression in the gray matter, especially in neurons of the olfactory bulb and the hippocampus, but also gave a signal in the white matter indicating its presence in glia. PI4KIIIalpha was highly expressed in neurons, but lacked a signal in the white matter and the choroid plexus. Both enzymes showed expression in the pigment layer and nuclear layers as well as in the ganglion cells of the retina. In a 17-day-old rat fetus, PI4KIIIbeta was found to be more widely distributed and PI4KIIIalpha was primarily expressed in neurons. These results indicate that PI4KIIIbeta is more widely expressed than PI4KIIIalpha, and that the two enzymes are probably coexpressed in many neurons. Such expression pattern and the conservation of these two proteins during evolution suggest their nonredundant functions in mammalian cells.

1-Phosphatidylinositol 4-Kinase↗

PubMed2005

Non-conscious prediction and a role for consciousness in correcting prediction errors.

As a result of the evolutionary pressure for survival, the brain relies on a number of non-conscious predictive neural mechanisms which allow for rapid, efficient behavioral responses to the environment. These predictive mechanisms enable the brain to recognize objects by sampling just a few sensory inputs, to anticipate what events are likely to occur and to prepare a response before events actually occur. Consciousness appears to play a role in the detection and correction of prediction errors. The author, a psychotherapist and psychoanalyst, proposes that this monitoring or oversight function of consciousness can be used to understand how conscious awareness facilitates change in the psychotherapeutic treatment of patients who repeat maladaptive patterns of behavior.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

PubMed1981

Electroreception in lampreys: evidence that the earliest vertebrates were electroreceptive.

Evoked potential and unit responses from the lamprey brain to weak electric fields demonstrate that lampreys have an electrosensory system as sensitive as those of other electroreceptive fishes. Electrosensory responses were recorded in the dorsal medulla, the midbrain torus semicircularis, and the optic tectum. Similarities in the structure of the anterior lateral line nerves and medullary organization between lampreys and several primitive jawed fishes indicate that the electroreceptive systems are homologous in these taxa. Thus electroreception was probably present in the earliest vertebrates ancestral to both agnathans and gnathostomes.

Animals↗

PubMed1980

Choosing the right fictions of scientific law.

Fictions are well established in the theory and practice of civil law; similar importance is here claimed for fictions in the theory and application of scientific law. A puzzle from quantum mechanics, previously referred to in this Journal [Am. J. Physiol. 238 (Regulatory Integrative Comp. Physiol. 7(: R277-R290, 1980], is reinterpreted by suggesting quantum logic as a source of relevant fictions, which indicate a solution to that puzzle. Another physiological application of quantum theory suggests that the concept of "the state of the brain" may, in its usual classical sense, not be useful for an individual brain--but may well be suggestively modeled by a quantum state. The notion of "myths," usually only pejoratively applied in positivistic writings, is suggested for rehabilitation, in view of their helpful function (often unnoticed) even in positivistic thinking. Finally, an example of a biological simulation (of a tumor by a cell culture) is presented, to show that its multilayered fictionalizations illustrate the surprising fact that a simulation that is insulated from the system being simulated can be logically more powerful than any uninsulated simulation.

Biological Evolution↗