Combining local and global evolutionary trajectories of brain–behaviour relationships through game theory

Abstract

The study of the evolution of brain–behaviour relationships concerns understanding the causes and repercussions of cross‐ and within‐species variability. Understanding such variability is a main objective of evolutionary and cognitive neuroscience, and it may help explaining the appearance of psychopathological phenotypes. Although brain evolution is related to the progressive action of selection and adaptation through multiple paths (e.g. mosaic vs. concerted evolution, metabolic vs. structural and functional constraints), a coherent, integrative framework is needed to combine evolutionary paths and neuroscientific evidence. Here, we review the literature on evolutionary pressures focusing on structural–functional changes and developmental constraints. Taking advantage of recent progress in neuroimaging and cognitive neuroscience, we propose a twofold hypothetical model of brain evolution. Within this model, global and local trajectories imply rearrangements of neural subunits and subsystems and of behavioural repertoires of a species, respectively. We incorporate these two processes in a game in which the global trajectory shapes the structural–functional neural substrates (i.e. players), while the local trajectory shapes the behavioural repertoires (i.e. stochastic payoffs).

Self-Conscious or Fear of Hurting Another’s Feeling? An Experimental Investigation on Promise-Keeping

“…Finally, although the work in our paper is not related to neuroscience, it will be illuminating if we can propose a model connecting behavior with the brain ( Di Plinio and Ebisch, 2020 ) and relate our experimental findings here to some neuronal findings. In this work, we assume that an individual keeps his or her promise to avoid the negative feelings like guilt (arising from not fulfilling the promisee’s expectation about the outcome), shame or anxiety (arising from breaking the norm of promise-keeping), which is closely correlated with spontaneous brain activity.…”

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Data_Sheet_1.doc

“…However, the conception of continua of human behaviors has received much attention in past years. The crucial role of both functional and dysfunctional behaviors on the continua has been discussed both in clinical contexts and in neuroscientific and neuroevolutionary contexts (1,2). Recent years have seen an increasing trend to consider psychosis as a continua (3), ranging from psychosis-like experiences (PLE) (or psychoticlike experiences), clinical high risk for psychosis (CHR), to fullblown psychosis.…”

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