Genetic basis in motor skill and hand preference for tool use in chimpanzees (<i>Pan troglodytes</i>)

Hopkins, William D.; Reamer, Lisa A.; Mareno, Mary Catherine; Schapiro, Steven J.

doi:10.1098/rspb.2014.1223

Cited by 50 publications

(48 citation statements)

References 66 publications

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“…Thus, for reasons that are not entirely clear, the tool task in this study did not elicit population-level biases and reinforces the view by some that nonhuman primate handedness is task-specific [63]. Second, as we have noted previously [42,88], there were an unusually large number of ambiguously-handed chimpanzees for this tool-use task which differs from findings in these same chimpanzees for other tasks as well as from results in wild chimpanzees. Indeed, nearly 50% of wild chimpanzees show near exclusive hand use for tool use whereas < 18% of our sample preferred their dominant hand on greater than 90% of the responses.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 86%

Motor skill for tool-use is associated with asymmetries in Broca’s area and the motor hand area of the precentral gyrus in chimpanzees ( Pan troglodytes )

Hopkins

Meguerditchian

Coulon

et al. 2017

Behavioural Brain Research

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Among nonhuman primates, chimpanzees are well known for their sophistication and diversity of tool use in both captivity and the wild. The evolution of tool manufacture and use has been proposed as a driving mechanism for the development of increasing brain size, complex cognition and motor skills, as well as the population-level handedness observed in modern humans. Notwithstanding, our understanding of the neurological correlates of tool use in chimpanzees and other primates remains poorly understood. Here, we assessed the hand preference and performance skill of chimpanzees on a tool use task and correlated these data with measures of neuroanatomical asymmetries in the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) and the pli-de-passage fronto-parietal moyen (PPFM). The IFG is the homolog to Broca’s area in the chimpanzee brain and the PPFM is a buried gyrus that connects the pre- and post-central gyri and corresponds to the motor-hand area of the precentral gyrus. We found that chimpanzees that performed the task better with their right compared to left hand showed greater leftward asymmetries in the IFG and PPFM. This association between hand performance and PPFM asymmetry was particularly robust for right-handed individuals. Based on these findings, we propose that the evolution of tool use was associated with increased left hemisphere specialization for motor skill. We further suggest that lateralization in motor planning, rather than hand preference per se, was selected for with increasing tool manufacture and use in Hominid evolution.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 86%

Motor skill for tool-use is associated with asymmetries in Broca’s area and the motor hand area of the precentral gyrus in chimpanzees ( Pan troglodytes )

Hopkins

Meguerditchian

Coulon

et al. 2017

Behavioural Brain Research

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“…Total phenotypic variance is constrained to a value of 1; therefore, all non-genetic contributions to the phenotype are computed as 1 - h 2 . Further, in line with previous nonhuman primate research (e.g., Fairbanks, Bailey, Breidenthal, Laudenslager, Kaplan, & Jorgensen, 2011; Fairbanks, Jorgensen, Bailey, Breidenthal, Grzywa, & Laudenslager, 2011; Hopkins, Reamer, Mareno, & Schapiro, 2014), we quantified the effects of shared environments ( c 2 ) by incorporating a matrix identifying individuals that were raised by the same mother. This creates a parameter corresponding to the fraction of the variance associated with the effect of a common maternal environment.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Etiology of Triarchic Psychopathy Dimensions in Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes)

Latzman

Patrick

Freeman

et al. 2017

Clinical Psychological Science

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The current study undertook analyses of genealogical data from a sample of 178 socially-housed chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) with well-documented pedigrees, to clarify the etiologic bases of triarchic psychopathy dimensions and the influence of early social rearing experiences. Whereas biometric analyses for the full sample indicated significant heritability for the boldness dimension of psychopathy only, heritability estimates varied by early rearing, with all three triarchic dimensions showing significant heritabilities among mother-reared but not nursery-reared apes. For mother-reared apes, both genes and environment contributed to covariance between meanness and disinhibition, whereas environment contributed mainly to covariation between these dimensions and boldness. Results indicate contributions of both genes and environment to psychopathic tendencies, with an important role for early-rearing in their relative contributions to distinct phenotypic subdimensions. In conjunction with findings from human studies, results provide valuable insights into core biobehavioral processes relevant to psychological illness and health.

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“…No paternity tests were conducted for the purposes of this study, but well-documented pedigrees, including information on mother, father, and offspring identity for many individuals, are available for these chimpanzees. This chimpanzee population has been used previously in quantitative genetic studies of behavioral phenotypes (41,42). Human MRI scans were obtained from the Human Connectome Project (HCP) database (43).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Relaxed genetic control of cortical organization in human brains compared with chimpanzees

Gómez‐Robles

Hopkins

Schapiro

et al. 2015

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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The study of hominin brain evolution has focused largely on the neocortical expansion and reorganization undergone by humans as inferred from the endocranial fossil record. Comparisons of modern human brains with those of chimpanzees provide an additional line of evidence to define key neural traits that have emerged in human evolution and that underlie our unique behavioral specializations. In an attempt to identify fundamental developmental differences, we have estimated the genetic bases of brain size and cortical organization in chimpanzees and humans by studying phenotypic similarities between individuals with known kinship relationships. We show that, although heritability for brain size and cortical organization is high in chimpanzees, cerebral cortical anatomy is substantially less genetically heritable than brain size in humans, indicating greater plasticity and increased environmental influence on neurodevelopment in our species. This relaxed genetic control on cortical organization is especially marked in association areas and likely is related to underlying microstructural changes in neural circuitry. A major result of increased plasticity is that the development of neural circuits that underlie behavior is shaped by the environmental, social, and cultural context more intensively in humans than in other primate species, thus providing an anatomical basis for behavioral and cognitive evolution. brain evolution | plasticity | hominins | neocortex | altriciality C ompared with nonhuman primates, human brains are significantly enlarged, reorganized, and have a disproportionately expanded neocortex (1-3). The fossil evidence demonstrates that these changes occurred in the hominin lineage over the last ∼6-8 My (4-9) in parallel with modifications to neurodevelopmental rates (10-13). Although some of these changes have been linked to certain genetic variants in the human lineage [either shared with other late hominin species or exclusive to modern humans (14, 15)], exploring brain evolution in hominins is challenging because of the limitations of the endocranial fossil record (4, 5). Comparisons of chimpanzee and human brains therefore are essential to reveal the neural traits that differ between the two species, that underlie their behavioral specializations, and that must have evolved after they split from their last common ancestor.Human behavioral and cognitive development is highly dependent on cultural influences and social learning (16,17). Notably, modern human behavioral adaptations for living in diverse habitats depend on skills and information learned from others (18). Similarly, it has been demonstrated that enculturated great apes perform better in different tasks related to physical and, especially, social cognition (19), underscoring the importance of environmental influences in shaping behavior. These observations are congruent with experimental studies in mouse models showing that variation in sensory experience early in postnatal life causes reorganization of neural circuits that underlie...

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Genetic basis in motor skill and hand preference for tool use in chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes)

Cited by 50 publications

References 66 publications

Motor skill for tool-use is associated with asymmetries in Broca’s area and the motor hand area of the precentral gyrus in chimpanzees ( Pan troglodytes )

Motor skill for tool-use is associated with asymmetries in Broca’s area and the motor hand area of the precentral gyrus in chimpanzees ( Pan troglodytes )

Etiology of Triarchic Psychopathy Dimensions in Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes)

Relaxed genetic control of cortical organization in human brains compared with chimpanzees

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