“The way we end up with similar circuits was more flexible than I would have planned,” said Zaremba. “You can build the same circuits from different types of cells.”
Zaremba and his team also found that in the pallium of birds, neurons that start development in different regions can mature in the same type of neuron in adults. This pushed against the previous views, which argued that the distinct regions of the embryo must generate different types of neurons.
In mammals, brain development follows an intuitive path: cells in the amygdal region of the embryo at the start of development are found in adult amygdal. Cells in the Embryo Cortex region are found in the adult cortex. But among birds, “there is a fantastic reorganization of the anterior brain,” said Güntürkün, it is “nothing to expect”.
Together, studies provide the clearest proof at the moment when birds and mammals have evolved independently the brain regions for complex cognition. They also echo Previous research from the Tosches laboratorywhich noted that the Mammalian neocortex has evolved independently of the reptile DVR.
However, it seems likely that there was a certain heritage of a common ancestor. In a third study that used in -depth learning, Kempynck and his co -author Nikolai Hecker found that mice, chickens and humans Share some DNA sections which influence the development of neocortex or DVR, which suggests that similar genetic tools are at work in both types of animals. And as previous studies had suggested, research groups found that inhibitory neurons, or those that write and modulate neural signals, were preserved through birds and mammals.
However, the results did not completely resolve the Karten and Puelles debate. What ideas were closer to the truth? Tosches said Puelles was right, while Güntürkün thought that the results better reflected Karten's ideas, but would partly like to puelle. García-Moreno divided the difference: “The two were right; None of them was wrong, “he said.
How to build intelligences
Intelligence does not come with an instructions manual. It is difficult to define, there are no ideal steps towards it, and it has no optimal design, said Tosches. Innovations can occur throughout the biology of an animal, whether in new genes and their regulation, or in new types of neurons, circuits and brain regions. But similar innovations can evolve several times independently – a phenomenon known as convergent evolution – and this is observed through life.
“One of the reasons why I like these papers a little is that they really highlight a lot of differences,” said Bradley ColquittA molecular neuroscientist at UC Santa Cruz. “This allows you to say: What are the different neural solutions that these organizations have proposed to solve similar problems of living in a complex world and to be able to adapt in a rapidly evolving terrestrial environment?”
The octopus and calmars, regardless of mammals, have evolved their eyes resembling cameras. Birds, bats and insects all took the sky by themselves. Ancient people in Egypt and South America have independently built the pyramids – the most structurally effective form that will resist the test of time, García -Moreno said: “If they go a trick, they will fall. If they will do a wall, it will not work.”
Likewise, “there are limited degrees of freedom in which you can generate an intelligent brain, at least within vertebrates,” said Tosches. Derif outside the vertebrate domain, however, and you can generate a smart brain in a much stranger – from our point of view, anyway. “It's a West West,” she said. The octopus, for example, “evolved intelligence in a way that is completely independent”. Their cognitive structures are nothing like ours, except that they are built from the same wide type of cell: the neuron. However, the octopuses were surprised playing incredible exploits such as the escaped aquarium tanks, the resolution of puzzles, pot lids and the transport of shells as shields.
It would be exciting to understand how the octopus has evolved intelligence using truly divergent neural structures, said Colquitt. In this way, it may be possible to determine all the absolute constraints on the evolution of intelligence on all animal species, not only vertebrates.
Such results could possibly reveal shared characteristics of various intelligence, said Zaremba. What are the constituent elements of a brain that can critically think, use tools or train abstract ideas? This understanding could help in search of extraterrestrial intelligence and to improve our artificial intelligence. For example, the way we are currently thinking of using evolution information to improve AI is very anthropocentric. “I would be really curious to see if we can build artificial intelligence from the point of view of birds,” said Kempynck. “How does a bird think?” Can we imitate this? “
Original story reprinted with the permission of How many magazine,, an independent editorial publication of Simons Foundation whose mission is to improve the understanding of the public of science by covering the developments of research and the trends of mathematics and physical sciences and life.
