Enforced altruism in insect societies.
Cooperation among workers and their seeming altruism result from strict policing by nestmates.
Altruism↗
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Results for “social evolution”
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An evolutionary approach to psychiatry.
OBJECTIVE: The current mainstream approach to psychiatry, characterised as empirical and phenomenological is questioned here and a new aetiological approach based on evolutionary theory is proposed. METHOD: A brief description of an evolutionary approach to animal behaviour is presented. The psychiatric states of anxiety, depression, 'hysterical' obsession and some aspects of psychosis are compared with related behaviours in other species. RESULTS: It is argued that this approach can be applied to psychiatric behaviour, that behavioural similarities exist between many psychiatric states and normal behaviour in species other than humans and many of these can be understood as adaptive. Some psychiatric states represent abnormally prominent adaptive behaviours, others represent distortions of these behaviours by a pathological process. An important line of thought in current animal behaviour research examines the concepts of self-awareness, consciousness, thought and affect in species other than man. These ideas, from an evolutionary perspective, are extended to psychiatry. A scheme illustrating this process is presented. CONCLUSIONS: We have drawn on relevant behavioural similarities between humans and other animals to show that many psychiatric states are distortions of evolved behaviour. The implications for classification, research and treatment are considerable. In particular this approach may form a bridge between fundamental research in molecular biology and the anthropomorphic approach of psychodynamics.
Adaptation, Psychological↗
[Aspects and convergences in the evolutionary theory of biological selection and the development of psychosomatic theory].
Psychotherapeutic theories have a lamarcistic trait in interpreting psychogeneous symptoms and signs. In the theory of Ch. Darwin the mechanism of selection plays an important role to interpret evolutionary processes. According to the psychotherapeutic process early infant relation-ships, the relation between description and structure, the six components of the affect and the convergence between non-verbal interaction and motivation are important.
Biological Evolution↗
Eusociality: origin and consequences.
In this new assessment of the empirical evidence, an alternative to the standard model is proposed: group selection is the strong binding force in eusocial evolution; individual selection, the strong dissolutive force; and kin selection (narrowly defined), either a weak binding or weak dissolutive force, according to circumstance. Close kinship may be more a consequence of eusociality than a factor promoting its origin. A point of no return to the solitary state exists, as a rule when workers become anatomically differentiated. Eusociality has been rare in evolution, evidently due to the scarcity of environmental pressures adequate to tip the balance among countervailing forces in favor of group selection. Eusociality in ants and termites in the irreversible stage is the key to their ecological dominance and has (at least in ants) shaped some features of internal phylogeny. Their colonies are consistently superior to solitary and preeusocial competitors, due to the altruistic behavior among nestmates and their ability to organize coordinated action by pheromonal communication.
Animals↗
Monophyly and extensive extinction of advanced eusocial bees: insights from an unexpected Eocene diversity.
Advanced eusociality sometimes is given credit for the ecological success of termites, ants, some wasps, and some bees. Comprehensive study of bees fossilized in Baltic amber has revealed an unsuspected middle Eocene (ca. 45 million years ago) diversity of eusocial bee lineages. Advanced eusociality arose once in the bees with significant post-Eocene losses in diversity, leaving today only two advanced eusocial tribes comprising less than 2% of the total bee diversity, a trend analogous to that of hominid evolution. This pattern of changing diversity contradicts notions concerning the role of eusociality for evolutionary success in insects.
Animals↗
Behavioral syndromes: an intergrative overiew.
A behavioral syndrome is a suite of correlated behaviors expressed either within a given behavioral context (e.g., correlations between foraging behaviors in different habitats) or across different contexts (e.g., correlations among feeding, antipredator, mating, aggressive, and dispersal behaviors). For example, some individuals (and genotypes) might be generally more aggressive, more active or bold, while others are generally less aggressive, active or bold. This phenomenon has been studied in detail in humans, some primates, laboratory rodents, and some domesticated animals, but has rarely been studied in other organisms, and rarely examined from an evolutionary or ecological perspective. Here, we present an integrative overview on the potential importance of behavioral syndromes in evolution and ecology. A central idea is that behavioral correlations generate tradeoffs; for example, an aggressive genotype might do well in situations where high aggression is favored, but might be inappropriately aggressive in situations where low aggression is favored (and vice versa for a low aggression genotype). Behavioral syndromes can thereby result in maladaptive behavior in some contexts, and potentially maintain individual variation in behavior in a variable environment. We suggest terminology and methods for studying behavioral syndromes, review examples, discuss evolutionary and proximate approaches for understanding behavioral syndromes, note insights from human personality research, and outline some potentially important ecological implications. Overall, we suggest that behavioral syndromes could play a useful role as an integrative bridge between genetics, experience, neuroendocrine mechanisms, evolution, and ecology.
Animals↗
Variation in positive selection in termite GNBPs and Relish.
Social insects are model organisms for investigating molecular evolution in the innate immune system. Their diversity affords comparative analysis among closely related species, and group living is likely to contribute to the pathogen stress imposed on the immune system. We used different models of nucleotide substitution at nonsynonymous (amino acid altering) and synonymous (silent) sites to compare the different levels and type of selection among three immunity genes in 13 Australian termite species (Nasutitermes). The immunity genes include two encoding pathogen recognition proteins (gram-negative bacterial-binding proteins) that duplicated and diverged before or soon after the evolution of the termites and a transcription factor (Relish), which induces the production of antimicrobial peptides. A comparison of evolutionary models that assign four unrestricted classes of dN/dS (the ratio of the nonsynonymous to synonymous substitution rate) to different Nasutitermes lineages revealed that the occurrence of positive selection (dN/dS > 1) varies among lineages and the three genes. Positive selection appears to have driven the evolution of all three genes in an ancestral lineage of three subterranean termites. It had previously been suggested that there was a transition along this ancestral lineage to termite morphology and ecology associated with a diet of decayed wood, a diet that may expose termites to elevated levels of fungal and bacterial pathogens. Relish appears to have experienced the highest levels of selective pressure for change among all three genes. Positively selected sites in the molecule are located in regions that are important for its activation, which suggests that amino acid substitutions at these sites are a counter response to pathogen mechanisms that disrupt the activation of Relish.
Amino Acid Substitution↗
Exaggerated pain behavior: by what standard?
This paper provides a philosophical, historical, and clinical analysis of exaggerated pain behavior, focusing on the nature of the standards used to judge behavior as exaggerated. Malingering is understood as a special case of exaggerated pain behavior. Drawing upon the work of philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein and psychiatrist-anthropologist Horacio Fabrega, I argue that these standards are primarily moral rather than scientific in nature. Pain behavior is not validated by matching public pain behavior with private pain experience. If this pain experience is truly private, it is not available to scientific investigation. Rather, pain behavior is judged as appropriate or exaggerated through complex assessments of the function of this behavior in its social context. As human social contexts have become more complex through history, so have the accommodations made for sick and disabled members of the group. Criteria for legitimate entry to the sick role have evolved with society, with only modern industrial society placing heavy emphasis on tissue damage demonstrated on medical tests. The highly variable relation between clinical pain and tissue damage, as well as the common problem of medically unexplained physical symptoms in primary care, pose serious challenges to this strategy of illness behavior validation. It will remain necessary to triage suffering presented to health care providers into that which should be addressed in the medical setting and that which is better addressed elsewhere. But we need to discard pseudoscientific reliance on medical tests and develop new standards that are openly acknowledged to be moral and social in nature.
Activities of Daily Living↗
ADHD as a disorder of adaptation.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity↗
Psychiatric disorders in the context of evolutionary biology. A functional classification of behavior.
This paper examines selected psychiatric illnesses from an evolutionary biological perspective. We present a functional classification of behavior-a classification system concerned with biological goals and behaviors which have biological consequences. The paper begins with an outline of functional views in psychiatry. This is followed by a review of the theoretical framework which serves as the basis for the classification system presented here. Biological goals are then listed and discussed. The capacity of individuals with psychiatric illnesses to achieve biological goals is reviewed briefly. Adaptive behaviors used to pursue the biologically relevant goals are then presented. The relationship between the capacity to enact adaptive behaviors and goal achievement is discussed with particular emphasis on the important role of adaptive strategies as a means of goal pursuit.
Adaptation, Psychological↗
Psychiatric aspects of pain.
PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Pain is a common reason for seeking healthcare. Chronic pain is commonly comorbid with psychiatric disorders. New evidence provides fresh insights into the nature of the link between pain and mental disorders and offers opportunity to refine treatment approaches. RECENT FINDINGS: Even though depression is the most commonly studied comorbid psychiatric disorder, new studies show that other mental disorder, especially anxiety disorders, are also common. Comorbid conditions, including other chronic physical conditions, account for a substantial proportion of the disability associated with chronic pain conditions. The causal link between chronic pain and mental disorders may vary depending on the specific mental disorder, but the link may be mediated by biological, psychological, and social factors. Recent findings also suggest that the evolution of the comorbidity may differ between the sexes. Promising interventions for chronic pain that also target contextual psychosocial problems have been recently described. SUMMARY: The frequent occurrence of mental disorders among patients with pain, especially those whose pain is chronic, has implications for the management of such patients. Current understanding of the complexity of this link not only provides opportunities for designing appropriate interventions but also raises new questions for further research.
Anxiety Disorders↗
On the advantages of information sharing.
During the evolution of life, there have been several transitions in which individuals began to cooperate, forming higher levels of organization, and sometimes losing their independent reproductive identity For example, multicellularity and insect societies evolved independently multiple times. Several factors that confer evolutionary advantages on higher levels of organization have been proposed. In this paper we highlight one additional factor: the sharing of information between individuals. Information sharing is not subject to the intrinsic conservation laws that characterize the sharing of physical resources. A simple model will illustrate how information sharing can result in aggregates in which the individuals both receive more information about their environment and pay less for it. This may have played a role in the evolution of higher levels of organization.
Animal Communication↗
Evolution of cooperation through indirect reciprocity.
How can cooperation through indirect reciprocity evolve and what would it be like? This problem has previously been studied by simulating evolution in a small group of interacting individuals, assuming no gene flow between groups. In these simulations, certain 'image scoring' strategies were found to be the most successful. However, analytical arguments show that it would not be in an individual's interest to use these strategies. Starting with this puzzle, we investigate indirect reciprocity in simulations based on an island model. This has an advantage in that the role of genetic drift can be examined. Our results show that the image scoring strategies depend on very strong drift or a very small cost of giving help. As soon as these factors are absent, selection eliminates image scoring. We also consider other possibilities for the evolution of indirect reciprocity. In particular, we find that the strategy of aiming for 'good standing' has superior properties. It can be an evolutionarily stable strategy and, even if not, it usually beats image scoring. Furthermore, by introducing quality variation among individuals into the model, we show that the standing strategy can be quality revealing, adding a new dimension to indirect reciprocity. Finally, we discuss general problems with currently popular modelling styles.
Animals↗
Spatial Ultimatum Games, collaborations and the evolution of fairness.
It is often the case that individuals in a social group can perform certain tasks (such as hunting, for example) more efficiently if they collaborate with other individuals than if they act alone. In such situations one is necessarily faced with the problem of how the resource obtained as the result of such a collaboration should be divided among the collaborating individuals. If one of the individuals in the collaboration is in a position (through its dominance rank, for example) to impose a particular division of the resource on the other members of the collaboration then we show that an evolutionary dilemma arises which prevents such collaborations being evolutionarily stable. This dilemma, which is closely related to the well-known Ultimatum Game, results from the fact that in such situations natural selection favours individuals who, if dominant, offer smaller and smaller shares of the resource to the others and, if subdominant, will accept lower and lower offers. We also show, however, that this dilemma is naturally resolved in a spatially structured population with selection favouring the evolution of a fair division of the resource and consequently ensuring the evolutionary stability of collaborations of this type.
Animals↗
Using a narrative metaphor: implications for theory and clinical practice.
The evolution of family therapy from a cybernetic metaphor to a narrative metaphor has led us to think differently about therapy, about clients, and about ourselves as therapists. In this article we pursue how this different way of thinking has informed a theoretical understanding of a narrative therapy approach and consequently has opened space for different ways of working clinically. We begin by tracing the evolution to narrative; we consider the implications of social constructionism and its political effects; and we complete the discussion by focusing on narrative theory. We then show how the clinical work follows logically and is coherent with the theoretical considerations. We describe, and illustrate with clinical examples, an innovative approach to working with couples and families with adolescents. In this work we pay attention to the larger cultural stories, including gender constructions, and to personal stories that persons have created to make meaning out of their experience as they interact with one another in a reciprocal meaning-making process. Interventions focus on externalizing the problem narrative that is influencing the client(s), mapping the effects of the problem pattern and/or the totalizing view persons might have of others, and creating space for client(s) to notice preferred actions and intentions. Finally, we close the loop by asking questions of ourselves and others about the effects of working from a narrative metaphor.
Adolescent↗
The adaptive function of mood change.
It is useful to imagine an 'agonistic strategy set', containing the two alternative and mutually incompatible strategies of escalation and de-escalation. The strategy set is accessed by loss, threat or some other form of 'ranking stress'. It is further suggested that ranking stress is dealt with relatively independently at three levels of the brain/mind, so that an agonistic strategy set is deployed at each of the three levels. Normally, all three levels escalate or de-escalate in unison, but sometimes lower level de-escalation is associated with middle or higher level escalation, and then the resolution of agonistic situations is delayed and psychopathology may be recognized.
Adaptation, Psychological↗
Pheromone-mediated aggregation in nonsocial arthropods: an evolutionary ecological perspective.
Although the use of aggregation pheromones has been reported for hundreds of nonsocial arthropod species, the evolutionary ecological aspects of this behavior have received little attention. Despite the elaborate literature on mechanisms, robust data on costs and benefits of aggregation pheromones are scant. Existing literature indicates that, in contrast to the diversity of mechanisms, the ecological conditions in which aggregation pheromones are used are more alike. This points to a few general categories for costs and benefits of aggregation pheromones, and these are discussed. We subsequently review interspecific interactions that may be affected by the use of aggregation pheromones. We encounter a strikingly frequent association of aggregation pheromones with fungi and microorganisms and address cross-attraction by competitor species and exploitation by natural enemies. We show that aggregative behavior by individuals through the use of pheromones can profoundly affect ecological interactions and advocate further evolutionary and ecological investigations of pheromone-mediated aggregation.
Animals↗