Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Indiana University.
Cogn Sci. 2006 Jan 2;30(1):3-41. doi: 10.1207/s15516709cog0000_50.
Foraging- and feeding-related behaviors across eumetazoans share similar molecular mechanisms, suggesting the early evolution of an optimal foraging behavior called area-restricted search (ARS), involving mechanisms of dopamine and glutamate in the modulation of behavioral focus. Similar mechanisms in the vertebrate basal ganglia control motor behavior and cognition and reveal an evolutionary progression toward increasing internal connections between prefrontal cortex and striatum in moving from amphibian to primate. The basal ganglia in higher vertebrates show the ability to transfer dopaminergic activity from unconditioned stimuli to conditioned stimuli. The evolutionary role of dopamine in the modulation of goal-directed behavior and cognition is further supported by pathologies of human goal-directed cognition, which have motor and cognitive dysfunction and organize themselves, with respect to dopaminergic activity, along the gradient described by ARS, from perseverative to unfocused. The evidence strongly supports the evolution of goal-directed cognition out of mechanisms initially in control of spatial foraging but, through increasing cortical connections, eventually used to forage for information.
泛后生动物的觅食和进食相关行为共享相似的分子机制，这表明一种名为区域限制搜索（ARS）的最优觅食行为的早期进化，该行为涉及多巴胺和谷氨酸在行为焦点调节中的机制。脊椎动物基底神经节中的类似机制控制运动行为和认知，并揭示了从两栖动物到灵长类动物的运动中，大脑前额叶皮层和纹状体之间的内部连接逐渐增加的进化趋势。高等脊椎动物的基底神经节显示出将多巴胺能活动从非条件刺激转移到条件刺激的能力。人类目标导向认知的病理学进一步支持了多巴胺在目标导向行为和认知调节中的进化作用，这些病理学表现为运动和认知功能障碍，并根据 ARS 描述的多巴胺能活动梯度自我组织，从持续到不集中。这一证据强烈支持了目标导向认知的进化，最初是在控制空间觅食的机制，但通过增加皮质连接，最终用于觅食信息。
