Collaborative Research: NCS: Foundations of learning: individual variation, plasticity, and evolution

合作研究：NCS：学习基础：个体差异、可塑性和进化

• 批准号: 2219759
• 负责人: Chet Sherwood
• 金额: $ 34.96万
• 依托单位: George Washington University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-08-15 至 2025-07-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2219759&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; NCS; Foundations; learning

Humans have remarkably plastic brains; adaptations for learning are perhaps the hallmark evolutionary trait of our species. This project will examine learning-related aspects of brain organization in great ape species that are close evolutionary relatives of humans – bonobos and chimpanzees – using noninvasive tests and archived brain samples and images. The work focuses on two learned skills that were important factors in human evolution: tool use and language. One analysis will use archived brain images from previous studies combined with new behavioral tests of skill learning. Apes will receive training in evolutionarily-relevant, naturalistic tool use skills, and the investigators will measure how individual variation in brain organization is related to skill learning. Another analysis will examine brain organization in apes that have and have not undergone training to use language-like systems, including hand signs and pictogram boards. The investigators will examine how language training is related to learning-related changes in the brain. Results are expected to shed light on probable brain changes during the evolution of the human species, provide insight on neural mechanisms of real-world skill learning in primate species closely related to humans, and facilitate understanding of how individual variation in brain structure is related to individual variation in behavior and cognition. This project will use a cross-disciplinary, comparative, integrative approach to examine how individual variation in brain anatomy influences learning trajectories in the context of real-world, evolutionarily relevant skills. It also examines the interaction between acquired, plastic changes in the brain resulting from learning during an individual’s lifetime, and evolved, heritable changes resulting from natural selection across generations. The project brings together methodological and theoretical approaches from neuroscience and neuroimaging, anthropology, archaeology, and animal behavior. Identification of plastic changes resulting from language training in great apes will provide a new window on the evolution of language circuits in our own species and will for the first time add crucial neurobiological information to landmark, long-running language-training studies in apes. Additionally, individual variation in chimpanzee and bonobo brain anatomy will be linked to differences in learning trajectories in two evolutionarily-relevant, real-world skills: simple stone tool knapping and nut cracking. Together, this research will provide important new insight on brain changes underlying acquisition of learned skills both on the timescale of individual lifetimes (plasticity) and the timescale of evolved, species-level change (adaptation).This project is funded by the Integrated Strategies for Understanding Neural and Cognitive Systems (NCS) program, which is jointly supported by the Directorates for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE), Education and Human Resources (EHR), Engineering (ENG), and Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences (SBE).This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

人类具有惊人的可塑性大脑；学习适应可能是我们物种的标志性进化特征，该项目将使用非侵入性测试和方法来研究与人类进化关系密切的类人猿（倭黑猩猩和黑猩猩）的大脑组织的相关方面。这项工作重点关注人类进化中的两种重要因素：工具使用和语言。一项分析将使用先前研究中的存档大脑图像，并结合猿类将接受的技能学习训练。进化相关的、自然的工具使用技能，研究人员将测量脑组织的个体差异与技能学习之间的关系。另一项分析将检查接受过或未接受过使用类语言系统（包括手）训练的猿类的脑组织。研究人员将研究语言训练与大脑中与学习相关的变化之间的关系，预计结果将揭示人类物种进化过程中可能发生的大脑变化，并提供对现实世界神经机制的见解。与人类密切相关的灵长类物种的技能学习，并促进理解大脑结构的个体差异如何与行为和认知的个体差异相关。该项目将使用跨学科、比较、综合的方法来研究大脑解剖学的个体差异如何影响现实背景下的学习轨迹。它还研究了个体一生中学习产生的后天性、可塑性变化与代际自然选择产生的进化性、遗传性变化之间的相互作用。该项目汇集了神经科学和理论的方法。神经影像学、人类学、考古学和动物行为对类人猿语言训练引起的可塑性变化的识别将为我们自己物种语言回路的进化提供一个新的窗口，并将首次为具有里程碑意义的长期研究添加重要的神经生物学信息。 -此外，在猿类中进行语言训练研究，黑猩猩和倭黑猩猩大脑解剖结构的个体差异将与两种与进化相关的现实世界技能的学习轨迹差异有关：简单的石器。这项研究将共同​​提供有关大脑变化的重要新见解，这些变化是在个体一生的时间尺度（可塑性）和进化的物种水平变化（适应）的时间尺度上习得的技能的基础。由理解神经和认知系统综合策略 (NCS) 计划提供，该计划由计算机和信息科学与工程 (CISE)、教育和人力资源 (EHR)、工程 (ENG) 和工程 (ENG) 理事会联合支持社会、行为和经济科学 (SBE)。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优点和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。