1. Adaptive Behavior
¿?
About adaptive behavior on “Multidisciplinary perspective
on higher cognitive functions” CSIM-UPF 2009

2. Chimpanzees... Homos... “We”
(Apes) (Prehistoric man) (Contemporary man)

3. ( )
ADN... Cells... Neurons...

4. ( )
ADN... Cells... Neurons...

5. ¿?
Adaptive behavior society ....

6. Man threatened by predators

7. Dominate / control:
Nature and all species...

8. What is the threat of modern man?

9. All other men....

10. Family Man
(Social specie)
Tribes, Clans, Mafias, Governments, Fraternity…

11. ¿?
How to understand what makes us human,
without dealing with the social factor?

12. !
human & social behavior are one*
“ Humans are intensely social creatures
and one of the major functions of our brains is to
enable us to interact successfully in social groups. ”
Tania Singer / Cognitive Neuroscience
* at least some believe that...

13. By exploring the nature and evolution of
macaque social organization, we can
develop our knowledge of the rise of
societies and their transformation during
the course of evolution.
Professor Darío Maestripieri
University of Chicago HUMAN
≡ RHESUS MACAQUE
Comparative Human In the struggle for survival, both resorted to the same solution:
Development
SOCIAL INTELLIGENCE
Evolutionary Biology
Neurobiology

14. …in the last episody
What make us human?
≡
=
=↑ 99% = ↓93%
HUMAN CHIMPANZEE
HUMAN RHESUS MACAQUE
> More different genetic spoken, but more similar in
social behavior.

15. SOCIAL
INTELLIGENCE ?
HUMAN
≡ RHESUS MACAQUE
> Deal with friends
> Build partnerships
> Power struggles
= ↓93% > Trading in influence...
• Use sex for social purpose
= • Tends to nepotism
• In both there is a quest for power (by itself) and
as a means to get everything else (food, sex .. et)
----> MACACHIAVELISMO (MACACO + MACHIAVELO)
≠ • Female Role
What make us human? SOCIAL FACTOR

16. HUMAN
1 RHESUS MACAQUE
2
CHIMPANZEE
3
Chimpanzee is more “intelligence” in many aspects than
Macaco. But the macaque is most successful (¿?)
> Because, like humans macaques are sociable.

17. What make us human? SOCIAL FACTOR
Social
Family Intelligence
Interpersonal Intelligence
To Howard Gardner
“We are more
We're very good
dedicated to our
understanding what
children than any
others think, or
other species.”
trying to do it.
(Mind reading &
empathy)

18. SOCIAL FACTOR Social neuroscience
> Focusing on how the > Investigate the
brain mediates confluence of neural
social interactions and social processes.
(Methodology)
• Functional MRI,
• Transcranial magnetic
stimulation,
• Electrocardiograms,
+
• Electromyograms,
• Endocrinology...

19. Social neuroscience
Social These structures evolved with
specie: neural and hormonal mechanisms
>create organizations beyond the to support them.
individual (families, cities, civilizations, and cultures...) (because social behavior helped these organisms to survive)
SN started to provide insights into
> Often used as synonyms.
neural mechanism underlying our capacity to*: > Sometimes the term empathy is
dividing it into two subcomponents,
emotional and cognitive empathy.
Represent others people’s Share the feelings of others
intentions and beliefs (in the absence of any direct emotional
stimulation to themselves)
Mentalizing (ToM) Emphaty
These concepts refer to our ability to put ourselves in the shoes of another person,
be it in their mental or emotional shoes.
> Allow human beings to represent the states of other people (mental or emotional)
> Predict others’ behavior Successfully engage in social interactions.
* T. Singer. There is neurological evidence for these division.

20. Mentalize > Distinct and relay on different Emphatize
neuro-cognitive circuits
☺+ ☹ = ☺☺
(share others feelings)
sharing the grief of a close friend feels fundamentally different than
(reflect upon others) understanding what this person is having as thoughts and
intentions, the latter lacking a bodily sensation. > Empathy is crucial for the
creation of affective bonds
between mother and child, and later
>This ability is absent in
monkeys and only exists in a between partners and larger social
rudimentary form in apes. groups
> The lack of a ToM in most > Observation or imagination of
autistic children could explain another person in a particular
their observed failures in emotional state automatically
communication and social interaction activates a representation of
that state in the observer with its
associated autonomic and somatic
responses.
Brain activity associated with different empathic responses ( domains of
Several studies have repeatedly given
touch, smell and pain):
evidence for the involvement of
three brain areas:
● Activation in anterior insula (AI) cortex,
● the temporal poles, (associated with the processing and feeling of
● the posterior superior temporal disgust)
sulcus (STS) and most consistently ● Activation in secondary somato-sensory
● an area in the medial pre-frontal cortex (SII) (involved in processing and feeling
lobe (mPFC) the sensation of touch).
>Activate when mentalizing about thoughts, intentions or beliefs of others but
also when people are attending to their own mental states.

21. ≠
> Evidence for neuronal correlates of mind reading
and empathy Emphatize
Mentalize
sharing sensations and emotions with others
> different ontogenetic trajectories
ability to understand the mental states of others
associated with limbic and para-limbic
structures
Related with structures that belong to (‘‘emotional’’ or ‘‘social’’ brain)
Neo-cortex
reflecting the differential development of the
underlying brain structures
developed late in phylogeny. developed early in phylogeny.

22. Mirror neurons….
The discovery of mirror neurons demonstrated that a
translation mechanism is present in the primate
brain and automatically elicited when viewing others’ actions
A newborn macaque imitates tongue protrusion
more than just imitation....
> Mirror system might underlie our ability > in Terms of Evolutionary Theory
to understand other people’s intentions
provides a great ADVANTAGE (to humans)
by providing us with an automatic Human can bring an action to conclusion >
simulation of their actions, goals and before it concludes in real time
intentions.
(having the possibility of taking immediate action to avoid danger)

23. References
Singer, Tania. The neuronal basis and ontogeny of empathy and mind reading: Review of literature and implications for
futer research. Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience and Welcome Department of Imaging Neuroscience, University College of London,
17 Queen Square, WC1N 3AR London, UK
http://eprints.nuim.ie/1003/1/Haydn__MPP_issue_4_2007.pdf
Gurmin, J. Haydn. Edith Stein, and Tania Singer. A comparison of Phenomenological and Neurological Approaches to the ‘Problem of Empathy’. Maynooth
Philosophical Papers Issue 4 (2007). An Anthology of Current Research
http://primate.uchicago.edu/dario.htm
http://www.redesparalaciencia.com/1659/redes/2009/redes-46-macacos-y-humanos-el-secreto-del-exito
http://www.redesparalaciencia.com/1637/redes/2009/redes-45-el-experto-y-sabio-inconsciente
http://www.elcervellsocial.net/backend/imagenes_panel/almacen_documentos/textos_profesores.pdf
http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neurociencia_social
http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neurona_espejo
http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&tid=11777
http://jn.physiology.org/cgi/content/abstract/69/6/1810
Gustatory neural coding in the amygdala of the alert macaque monkey
T. R. Scott, Z. Karadi, Y. Oomura, H. Nishino, C. R. Plata-Salaman, L. Lenard, B. K. Giza and S. Aou. National Institute
for Physiological Sciences, Myodaiji, Japan.