TY - JOUR
T1 - The evolution of quantitative sensitivity
AU - Bryer, Margaret A.H.
AU - Koopman, Sarah E.
AU - Cantlon, Jessica F.
AU - Piantadosi, Steven T.
AU - MacLean, Evan L.
AU - Baker, Joseph M.
AU - Beran, Michael J.
AU - Jones, Sarah M.
AU - Jordan, Kerry E.
AU - Mahamane, Salif
AU - Nieder, Andreas
AU - Perdue, Bonnie M.
AU - Range, Friederike
AU - Stevens, Jeffrey R.
AU - Tomonaga, Masaki
AU - Ujfalussy, Dorottya J.
AU - Vonk, Jennifer
PY - 2022/2/14
Y1 - 2022/2/14
N2 - The ability to represent approximate quantities appears to be phylogenetically widespread, but the selective pressures and proximate mechanisms favouring this ability remain unknown. We analysed quantity discrimination data from 672 subjects across 33 bird and mammal species, using a novel Bayesian model that combined phylogenetic regression with a model of number psychophysics and random effect components. This allowed us to combine data from 49 studies and calculate the Weber fraction (a measure of quantity representation precision) for each species. We then examined which cognitive, socioecological and biological factors were related to variance in Weber fraction. We found contributions of phylogeny to quantity discrimination performance across taxa. Of the neural, socioecological and general cognitive factors we tested, cortical neuron density and domain-general cognition were the strongest predictors of Weber fraction, controlling for phylogeny. Our study is a new demonstration of evolutionary constraints on cognition, as well as of a relation between species-specific neuron density and a particular cognitive ability. This article is part of the theme issue 'Systems neuroscience through the lens of evolutionary theory'.
AB - The ability to represent approximate quantities appears to be phylogenetically widespread, but the selective pressures and proximate mechanisms favouring this ability remain unknown. We analysed quantity discrimination data from 672 subjects across 33 bird and mammal species, using a novel Bayesian model that combined phylogenetic regression with a model of number psychophysics and random effect components. This allowed us to combine data from 49 studies and calculate the Weber fraction (a measure of quantity representation precision) for each species. We then examined which cognitive, socioecological and biological factors were related to variance in Weber fraction. We found contributions of phylogeny to quantity discrimination performance across taxa. Of the neural, socioecological and general cognitive factors we tested, cortical neuron density and domain-general cognition were the strongest predictors of Weber fraction, controlling for phylogeny. Our study is a new demonstration of evolutionary constraints on cognition, as well as of a relation between species-specific neuron density and a particular cognitive ability. This article is part of the theme issue 'Systems neuroscience through the lens of evolutionary theory'.
KW - Weber fraction
KW - brain evolution
KW - quantity discrimination
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U2 - 10.1098/rstb.2020.0529
DO - 10.1098/rstb.2020.0529
M3 - Article
C2 - 34957840
AN - SCOPUS:85123036401
VL - 377
SP - 20200529
JO - Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
JF - Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
SN - 0962-8436
IS - 1844
ER -