The evolution of quantitative sensitivity

Author:

Bryer Margaret A. H.12ORCID,Koopman Sarah E.3ORCID,Cantlon Jessica F.1ORCID,Piantadosi Steven T.2ORCID,MacLean Evan L.45ORCID,Baker Joseph M.6,Beran Michael J.7ORCID,Jones Sarah M.8,Jordan Kerry E.9,Mahamane Salif10,Nieder Andreas11ORCID,Perdue Bonnie M.12,Range Friederike13ORCID,Stevens Jeffrey R.14ORCID,Tomonaga Masaki15ORCID,Ujfalussy Dorottya J.1617ORCID,Vonk Jennifer18ORCID

Affiliation:

1. Department of Psychology, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA

2. Department of Psychology, University of California-Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA

3. School of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of St. Andrews, St Andrews KY16 9AJ, UK

4. School of Anthropology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85719, USA

5. College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85719, USA

6. Center for Interdisciplinary Brain Sciences Research, Division of Brain Sciences, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, School of Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA

7. Department of Psychology and Language Research Center, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA 30302, USA

8. Psychology Program, Berea College, Berea, KY 40403, USA

9. Department of Psychology, Utah State University, Logan, UT 84322, USA

10. Behavioral and Social Sciences Department, Western Colorado University, Gunnison, CO 81231, USA

11. Animal Physiology Unit, Institute of Neurobiology, University of Tübingen, Tübingen 72076, Germany

12. Department of Psychology, Agnes Scott College, Decatur, GA 30030, USA

13. Domestication Lab, Konrad Lorenz Institute of Ethology, Department of Interdisciplinary Life Sciences, University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna, Savoyenstrasse 1a, Vienna 1160, Austria

14. Department of Psychology and Center for Brain, Biology and Behavior, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE 68588, USA

15. Inuyama, Aichi 484-0000, Japan

16. MTA-ELTE Comparative Ethology Research Group, Eötvös Loránd University of Sciences (ELTE), Budapest 1117, Hungary

17. Department of Ethology, Eötvös Loránd University of Sciences (ELTE), Budapest 1117, Hungary

18. Department of Psychology, Oakland University, Rochester, MI 48309, USA

Abstract

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’.

Funder

James S. McDonnell Foundation

Austrian Science Fund

NSF GRFP

Alfred P. Sloan Foundation

National Institutes of Health

Publisher

The Royal Society

Subject

General Agricultural and Biological Sciences,General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology

Reference140 articles.

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