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What makes us HUMAN? When you work on a definition question, explain the concept and examples do not hurt. When you answer a significance question, you must think on why this this concept is important (e.g. missing heritability is important because knowing all genomic associations do not clarify the link between phenotype and genotype).

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Figure 4.1: Simplified hominin phylogeny. After Lewin and Foley (2004) p. 17 What characteristics set homo sapiens apart from other primates?

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Calendar of Hominin Evolution 10 - 5 mya Cooler climate in Africa replacing tropical forests with open habitats ~ 5-7 mya Hominini separated from Panini 4.4- 1.1 myaAustralopithecus species 2.4 - 1.5 myaHomo habilis 1.9 - 0.3 myaHomo erectus 800 - 50 kyaArchaic Homo sapiens (Homo heidelbergensis) 300 - 30 kyaHomo neanderthalensis 200kya - pres.Modern Homo sapiens 10kya - pres.Agriculture

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Check out eSkeletons to compare extant primate species!eSkeletons

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Figure 5.10: Muscles that move the human thumb. From Sussman R. (1994) Science 265: 1570-1573 Muscles unique to humans are in color. Kalthoff 2010

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~3.4Ma

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Human brain anatomy Cerebral cortex Neocortex Sensory perception Motor commands Spatial reasoning Consciousness Language Allocortex Hippocampus Spatial navigation Consolidation of short and long term memory Amygdala Emotional memory Long term memory consolidation Corpus callosum Connects left & right hemisphere Cerebellum Motor control Cerebellum http://www.brain-map.org/

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Human brain anatomy

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Somatosensory representation of the human body in the cortex

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Why do humans have large brains? Allometric hypothesis Non-adaptive Allometric hypothesis: large brains are a consequence of having a larger body size Adaptive Ecological Brain Hypotheses 1.Resource dispersion 2.Mental maps 3.Extractive foraging Social Brain Hypotheses 1.Individual recognition 2.Relationship memory 3.Emotional competence 4.Relationship management

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Could you explain the encephalization quotient from the 'brain evolution' lecture? Is the human brain special? Humans dont have the largest brain among mammals Encephalization quotient: brain mass corrected for body mass Does a small brained animal with a large EQ have greater cognitive ability than a large brained animal with a small EQ? Neuron number does not always correlate with brain mass Herculano-Houzel 2009 Front Hum Neurosci Brain mass (g) & Neuron number (M)

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Herculano-Houzel PNAS 2012;109:10661-10668 2012 by National Academy of Sciences Is the human brain special? The total number of neurons in the human brain is actually what you would predict for our body size a 75 kg primate would be expected to have 78 billion neurons Humans have 86 billion, within 10% of the expected from body mass The relative number of neurons in the cerebral cortex is similar to other primates 82% of brain mass, but only 19% of the neurons! The energetic cost per neuron is not unusual 6 kCal per billion neurons per day Humans have a very large brain, but its just a scaled up version of the typical primate brain Caveat: the relative size of functional cortical areas, the volume of prefrontal white matter or the size of specific portions of the cerebellum may impact human cognition

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Herculano-Houzel PNAS 2012;109:10661-10668 2012 by National Academy of Sciences Is the human brain special? The total number of neurons in the human brain is actually what you would predict for our body size a 75 kg primate would be expected to have 78 billion neurons Humans have 86 billion, within 10% of the expected from body mass The relative number of neurons in the cerebral cortex is similar to other primates 82% of brain mass, but only 19% of the neurons The energetic cost per neuron is not unusual 6 kCal per billion neurons per day Humans have a very large brain, but its just a scaled up version of the typical primate brain Caveat: the relative size of functional cortical areas, the volume of white matter or the size of specific portions of the cerebellum may impact human cognition

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Ecological Brain Resource Dispersion Hypothesis Hypothesis: Temporally or spatially ephemeral resources select for greater cognitive function Prediction: Primates with more frugivorous (fruit eating) diets should have a larger neocortex ratio than folivorous (leaf eating) primates Dunbar 1998 -> A larger neocortex is associated with more parvocellular cells (color processing region of the cortex) In the 'brain evolution' lecture, it is mentioned that a larger neocortex is associated with more parvocellular cells. Does this support the hypothesis that primates with more frugivorous diets have a larger neocortex ratio than folivorous primates?

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Ecological Brain Mental Maps Hypothesis Hypothesis: Spatial learning selects for greater cognitive function Prediction: Primates with larger home ranges should have a larger neocortex ratio Dunbar 1998 -> Range size does correlate with hippocampus size -> Migrating animals (birds, butterflies) have small brains

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Remember, to answer: Why do humans have large brains? There are these hypotheses Non-adaptive Allometric hypothesis: large brains are a consequence of having a larger body size Adaptive Ecological Brain Hypotheses 1.Resource dispersion 2.Mental maps 3.Extractive foraging Social Brain Hypotheses 1.Individual recognition 2.Relationship memory 3.Emotional competence 4.Relationship management

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HCF have argued that most if not all of FLB is shared with other species While FLN may be unique to humans (This represents a hypothesis in need of further empirical investigation) FLN evolved for reasons other than language, the comparative analysis should demonstrate this What is the faculty of language?

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Hypotheses For Human Language Evolution Hypothesis 1: FLB (including FLN) is strictly homologous to animal communication. Hypothesis 2: FLB is a derived, uniquely human adaptation for language. Hypothesis 3: Only FLN is uniquely human. Hauser et al 2002

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To understand the evolution of language we are not interested in the language per se but the ability to use it. FLB includes FLN plus two other components, the sensory motor aspects and the conceptual intentional aspects. Sensorimotor = capacity to perceive and produce sound Conceptual-intentional = mental representations of an idea Hauser et al 2002 What are the differences between the broad and narrow sense of the faculty of language? FLB includes a sensory-motor system, a conceptual-intentional system, and the computational mechanisms for recursion, providing the capacity to generate an infinite range of expressions from a finite set of elements. We hypothesize that FLN only includes recursion and is the only uniquely human component of the faculty of language Hauser et al 2002 4. What does "FLN generates internal representations and maps them onto sensory motor and conceptual-intention interface" mean? (language ppt #12)

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So.. What is recursion? Wikipedia: Recursion is the process of repeating items in a self-similar way. For instance, when the surfaces of two mirrors are exactly parallel with each other, the nested images that occur are a form of infinite recursion.

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Recursion in R language and programing!

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The abstract [Hauser et al 2002] makes the very strong proposal that the narrow language faculty only includes recursion and is the only uniquely human component of the faculty of language. Recursion refers to a procedure that calls itself, or to a constituent that contains a constituent of the same kind. The authors suggest that most, if not all, of FLB is based on mechanisms shared with non-human animals.. In contrast, we suggest that FLNthe computational mechanism of recursionis recently evolved and unique to our species We propose in this hypothesis that FLN comprises only the core computational mechanisms of recursion as they appear in narrow syntax and the mappings to the interfaces (i.e. the interfaces with mechanisms of speech perception, speech production, conceptual knowledge, and intentions). The authors go on to speculate that the recursion mechanism, defining what is special about language, may not even have evolved for language itself but for other cognitive abilities such as navigation, number, or social relationships. Steven Pinker

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FLB = Faculty of Language (Broad sense) FLN = Faculty of Language (Narrow sense) Hauser et al 2002

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Can you go over the different parts of the brain and the associated function of each? Campbells monkeys also produce alarm calls in response to predators and other disturbances. Six different alarm calls types Call given in different contexts. Adding an oo unit to hok indicated that the male was aggressively motivated

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Fig. 2. Composition of call sequences in different behavioral contexts. Alarm indicates leopard or eagle alarm calls given by sympatric Diana monkeys.

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Could you give us examples of the four types of operant conditioning. (Behavior ppt #13)

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PRINCIPLES OF THE STANDARD SOCIAL SCIENCES MODEL Learning is the mechanism generating fidelity within and differences between cultures in human behavior. Behaviorism Humans are learning machines Any behavior can be learned through reward and punishment Skinners operant conditioning: Behaviors not followed by reinforcement (or punishment) are not repeated. Culture is thus free to vary in any direction. Operant conditioning Look at this video if you can: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mt4N9GSBoMI

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Positive Reinforcement Positive reinforcement is giving something pleasant after a behavior. This increases the probability that the behavior will continue. Examples are: Having a job and going to work every day to receive a paycheck. Receiving praise after a musical performance would increase the amount that you perform. A teacher complimenting students when they answer correctly will increase that behavior. At a gym, customers receive a discount if they work out a certain number of times and eat healthy. In the Skinner Box experiment, a rat got food as a reward for acceptable behavior, such as pressing a lever. Negative Reinforcement Negative reinforcement is taking away something unpleasant as a result of the behavior that is acceptable. This is also meant to increase the behavior. Examples are: It is very noisy outside so you turn on the television to mask the noise. Turning on the radio decreased the unpleasant noise. A teacher exempts student from the final test if they have perfect attendance. So, the teacher is taking away something unpleasant to increase behavior. At a store, a child throws a tantrum because he did not get a candy bar. Dad finally gets him one. He stopped the tantrum so he took away something unpleasant and Dads behavior of getting candy bars will increase. In the Skinner box experiment, a loud noise continuously sounded inside the cage until the rat did what Skinner wanted him to do. When he did, the noise stopped, so the unpleasant noise was taken away. In a biology class, students who made an "A" on the test did not have to dissect a frog. Positive Punishment Positive punishment is used to decrease a behavior and is presenting something unpleasant after the behavior. Examples are: An employee exhibits bad behavior at work and the boss criticizes him. The behavior will decrease because of the bosss criticism. When a student misbehaves in class, she receives a time out. A child gets a spanking when he puts his hand in the cookie jar. When a child does not out his clothes in the hamper, he has to do ten extra minutes of chores. In an experiment, the subject received a slight electric shock when they got an answer wrong. Negative Punishment Negative punishment is also used to decrease a behavior and is removing something pleasant after the behavior. Examples are: An employee is habitually late for work so begins losing the privilege of listening to music while working. The behavior will decrease because of losing a privilege. A child doesnt put his bike away so the parents lock it up for a certain time. The parents took away something pleasant to decrease behavior. Ted gets a $500 fine and suspension of his driving license for driving under the influence. Money and his license were removed to decrease behavior. A family has a "swear jar." Every time someone swears, they have to put a dollar in the jar. This is taking away money, which is something pleasant, and decreases the behavior of swearing. Kevin trashes his sisters room and Mom told him he could not go camping with his friends. Taken from http://examples.yourdictionary.com/operant-conditioning-examples.html

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When talking about evolutionary psychology, what is genetic determinism in the strict sense? (Behavior ppt #13) PRINCIPLES OF EVOLUTIONARY PSYCHOLOGY The brain is an information processing device A physical system that can be studied, not a black box Receives inputs, enacts a decision rule and outputs behavior/emotions/physiological responses. Does not assume genetic determinism of behavior in the strict sense Output is dependent upon specific environmental contingencies. If E1 occurs, do x; if E2 occurs, do y, if E1 & E2 occurs, do z. Darwinian algorithms: the mind has evolved to process many different environmental contingencies and produce an adaptive response. Algorithms can be modified by the environment, but this is also an evolved capacity constrained by the pre-existing algorithms. Inputs Decision Rules Outputs

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What does it mean when it says that humans and dolphins can imitate in > 1 sensory modality and do dolphins and songbirds just regurgitate the imitated sounds without them having any meaning? Imitation: The sensory-motor system Imitation is a precondition for FLB to evolve Imitation not unique to humans Highly developed in songbirds and dolphins. But virtually absent in apes and monkeys can learn several hundred hand signs but requires years of training Only humans and dolphins can imitate in >1 sensory modality

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On slide #12 of the "bipedalism and tool making" powerpoint, it states that male have a preference for high waist to hip ratio. However, from the mate choice lecture, we learned that the preference is for lower waist/hip ratio. What is the reason for this discrepancy? It depends on the point of view.. Lower than.65 has lower preferences

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Directed reciprocation Byproduct cooperation Cooperation Kin Selection Indirect reciprocity There were not questions on this.. If I get more before Monday I will update this ppt