Leadbeater Ellouise, Thornton Alex
Departement of Genetics, Evolution and Environment, University College London, London, UK.
Centre for Ecology and Conservation, University of Exeter, Penryn, Cornwall, UK.
Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2025 Jun 26;380(1929):20240108. doi: 10.1098/rstb.2024.0108.
This special issue explores the evolution of cognitive diversity across the animal kingdom, challenging the value of approaches that have a basis in human psychology in favour of a perspective that embraces the multiple evolutionary endpoints that natural selection has produced. This approach centres around the key role of sensory processing as integral to cognition, rather than as something to be disentangled from it; around the relevance of so-called 'simple' processes; around the constraints that shape evolutionary trajectories and around the nonlinear nature of the selective environment. The field is advancing through approaches that span neuroscience, theoretical modelling, field studies, population genetics and more. By reframing cognition as a set of solutions to the natural world's many challenges, we move closer to understanding animal minds as reflections of the numerous ways life has evolved to make use of information.This article is part of the Theo Murphy meeting issue 'Selection shapes diverse animal minds.'
本期特刊探讨了整个动物界认知多样性的演变，对基于人类心理学的方法的价值提出了挑战，转而支持一种包含自然选择所产生的多个进化终点的观点。这种方法围绕着感觉处理作为认知不可或缺的关键作用展开，而不是将其视为与认知相分离的东西；围绕所谓“简单”过程的相关性展开；围绕塑造进化轨迹的限制因素展开；以及围绕选择环境的非线性本质展开。该领域正通过跨越神经科学、理论建模、实地研究、群体遗传学等的方法不断前进。通过将认知重新构建为应对自然界诸多挑战的一系列解决方案，我们更接近于将动物思维理解为生命进化以利用信息的众多方式的反映。本文是西奥·墨菲会议特刊“选择塑造多样的动物思维”的一部分。
