Faculty of Biology and Chemistry, Brain Research Institute, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany.
Faculty of Biology and Chemistry, Brain Research Institute, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany.
Prog Brain Res. 2019;250:285-316. doi: 10.1016/bs.pbr.2019.02.004. Epub 2019 Mar 21.
We investigate which of the higher cognitive abilities or types of intelligence characteristic of humans are found, even in preliminary form, in non-human animals, predominantly primates, or whether qualitatively different ("unique") human abilities exist. This concerns (1) tool use and fabrication, (2) problem solving, (3) gaze following, (4) mirror self-recognition, (5) imitation, (6) metacognition, (7) theory of mind, (8) consciousness, (9) prosociality, and (10) language. We found that none of these abilities can be regarded as unique to humans without precursors in non-human primates. The observed differences in cognitive functions, underlying brain mechanisms and resulting behaviors correlate best with differences in the information processing capacity as an equivalent of general intelligence based on the number of cortical neurons, packing density and axonal conduction velocity plus long-range cortical fascicles. The biggest quantitative change appears to concern the origin of syntactical language, but this was preceded by an increased mental ability to manipulate sequential events within working memory.
我们研究哪些更高层次的认知能力或类型的智力是人类特有的，即使是在初步形式中，也存在于非人类动物中，主要是灵长类动物，或者是否存在定性不同的（“独特的”）人类能力。这涉及到（1）工具使用和制造，（2）解决问题，（3）注视跟随，（4）镜像自我认知，（5）模仿，（6）元认知，（7）心理理论，（8）意识，（9）亲社会行为，和（10）语言。我们发现，如果没有非人类灵长类动物的前体，这些能力都不能被视为人类所独有的。观察到的认知功能、潜在的大脑机制和由此产生的行为差异与基于皮质神经元数量、包装密度和轴突传导速度加上长程皮质束的一般智力的信息处理能力差异最相关。最大的数量变化似乎涉及到句法语言的起源，但这之前是工作记忆中处理顺序事件的心理能力的增强。
