Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-v9fdk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-18T20:22:18.345Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Quality of life and the evolution of the brain

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 January 2023

KM Kendrick
KM Kendrick*
Affiliation:
Cognitive and Behavioural Neuroscience, The Babraham Institute, Babraham, Cambridge CB2 4AT, UK
*
Correspondence: [email protected]
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

The dual problem of explaining brain evolution and the way in which it has led to wide species differences in behaviour and physiology has often appeared intractable to scientists. The main limiting factor is that we do not understand enough about how brains work to appreciate why gross or fine morphological differences can lead to the considerable across- as well as within-species differences in behaviour. Even at a molecular level, while two-thirds of our genes are involved in regulating brain function, there is a high degree of homology within different phyla. In the context of quality of life (QoL), arguably the most important consideration is that the brain you have evolved is adapted to the environment you are living in and is capable of generating ‘conscious’ experience. When that environment is radically altered, issues arise regarding whether there is sufficient adaptability to cope and the extent to which mental as well as physical suffering might be experienced as a consequence. At the other end of the spectrum there is the question of how enriched social and physical environments might enhance QoL through promoting positive affect. Here I will discuss potential functional contributions of differences in brain size and organisation and the impact of experience. I will mainly focus on mental functioning and show particularly that capacities for consciousness, emotional experience, social interaction and cognition and behavioural flexibility are likely to be widespread in other animal species, even if less developed than in humans.

Keywords

animal welfarebrain evolutioncognitionconsciousnessemotionquality of life
Type
Research Article
Information
Animal Welfare , Volume 16 , Issue S1: Quality of Life: the heart of the matter: Proceedings of the UFAW/BVA Ethics Committee International Symposium, The Royal Society, London, 13-14 September 2006. , May 2007 , pp. 9 - 15
Copyright
© 2007 Universities Federation for Animal Welfare

References

Aron, A, Fisher, H, Mashek, DJ, Strong, G, Li, HF and Brown, LL 2005 Reward, motivation, and emotion systems associated with early stage intense romantic love. Journal of Neurophysiology 94: 327–337CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bartels, A and Zeki, S 2004 The neural correlates of maternal and romantic love. NeuroImage 21: 1155–1166CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bereczkei, T, Gyuris, P and Weisfeld, GE 2004 Sexual imprinting in human mate choice. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Series B — Biological Sciences 271: 1129–1134CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Broad, KD, Mimmack, ML and Kendrick, KM 2000 Is right hemisphere specialization for face discrimination specific to humans? European Journal of Neuroscience 12: 731–741CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Burgdorf, J and Panksepp, J 2006 The neurobiology of positive emotions. Neuroscience and Biobehavioural Reviews 30: 173–187CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cantalupo, CC and Hopkins, WD 2001 Asymmetric Broca's area in great apes. Nature 414: 5CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Clayton, NS, Bussey, TJ and Dickinson, A 2003 Can animals recall the past and plan for the future. Nature Reviews Neuroscience 4: 685–691CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Da Costa, APC, Broad, KD and Kendrick, KM 1997 Olfactory memory and maternal behaviour-induced changes in c-fos and zif-268 mRNA expression in the sheep brain. Molecular Brain Research 46: 63–76CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Da Costa, AP, Leigh, AE, Man, M-S and Kendrick, KM 2004 Face pictures reduce behavioural, autonomic, endocrine and neural indices of stress and fear in sheep. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Series B – Biological Sciences 271: 2077–2084CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Denton, DA, Shade, R, Zamarippa, F, Egan, G, Blair-West, J, McKinley, M and Fox, P 1999 The correlation of regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) and change of plasma sodium concentration during the genesis and satiation of thirst. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 96: 2532–2537CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fabre-Nys, C, Ohkura, S and Kendrick, KM 1997 Male faces and odours evoke differential patterns of neurochemical release in the mediobasal hypothalamus of the ewe during oestrus: an insight into sexual motivation. European Journal of Neuroscience 9: 1666–1677CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gallup, GG 1970 Chimpanzees: self-recognition. Science 167: 86–87CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hammock, EAD and Young, LJ 2006 Oxytocin, vasopressin and autism: implications for autism. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, Series B — Biological Sciences 361: 2187–2198CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hof, PR and van der Gucht, E 2007 Structure of the cerebral cortex of the humpback whale, Megaptera novaeangliae(Cetacea, Mysticeti, Balaenopteridae). Anatomical Record 290: 1–31CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Iacoboni, M and Dapretto, M 2006 The mirror neuron system and the consequence of its dysfunction. Nature Reviews Neuroscience 7: 942–951CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kanwisher, N, Chun, MM, McDermott, J and Ledden, PJ 1996 Functional imaging of human visual recognition. Cognitive Brain Research 5: 55–67CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Keenan, JP, Wheeler, MA, Gallup, GG and Pascual-Leone, A 2000 Self-recognition and the right prefrontal cortex. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 4: 338–344CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kendrick, KM 2001 Oxytocin, motherhood and bonding. Experimental Physiology 85: S111–S124CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kendrick, KM, Broad, KD, Hinton, MR, Houpt, M and Skinner, J 2001a Sex differences in the influence of mothers on the sociosexual preferences of their offspring. Hormones and Behavior 40: 322–338CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kendrick, KM, Hinton, MR, Atkins, K, Haupt, MA and Skinner, JD 1998 Mothers determine sexual preferences. Nature 395: 229–230CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kendrick, KM, Leigh, A and Peirce, J 2001b Behavioural and neural correlates of mental imagery in sheep using face recognition paradigms. Animal Welfare 10: S89–S101Google Scholar
Keverne, EB 2004 Understanding well-being in the evolutionary context of brain development. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, Series B — Biological Sciences 359: 1349–1358CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
LeDoux, J 2003 The emotional brain, fear, and the amygdala. Cellular and Molecular Neurobiology 23: 727–738CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Liotti, M, Brannan, S, Egan, G, Shade, R, Madden, L, Abplanalp, B, Robillard, R, Lancaster, J, Zamarripa, FE, Fox, PT and Denton, D 2001 Brain responses associated with consciousness of breathlessness (air hunger). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 98: 2035–2040CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Little, AC, Penton-Voak, IS, Burt, DM and Perrett, DI 2003 Investigating an imprinting-like phenomenon in humans. Partners and opposite-sex parents have similar hair and eye colour. Evolution and Human Behavior 24: 43–51CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meaney, MJ and Szyf, M 2005 Maternal care as a model of experience dependent chromatin plasticity. Trends in Neurosciences 28: 456–463CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nimchinsky, EA, Gilissen, E, Allman, JM, Perl, DP, Erwin, JM and Hof, PR 1999 A neuronal morphologic type unique to humans and great apes. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 96: 5268–5273CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Nishitani, N, Schurmann, M, Amunts, K and Hari, R 2005 Broca's region: from action to language. Physiology 20: 60–69CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ohkura, S, Fabre-Nys, C, Broad, KD and Kendrick, KM 1997 Sex hormones enhance the impact of male sensory cues on both primary and association cortical components of visual and olfactory processing pathways as well as limbic and hypothalamic regions in female sheep. Neuroscience 80: 285–297CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Okuda, J, Fujii, T, Ohtake, H, Tsukiura, T, Tanji, K, Suzuki, K, Kawashima, R, Fukuda, H, Itoh, M and Yamadori, A 2003 Thinking of the future and past: the roles of the frontal pole and the medial temporal lobes. NeuroImage 19: 1369–1380CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Perrett, DI, Penton-Voak, IS, Little, AC, Tiddeman, BP, Burt, DM, Schmidt, N, Oxley, R, Kinloch, N and Barrett, L 2002 Facial attractiveness judgements reflect learning of parental age characteristics. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Series B — Biological Sciences 269: 873–880CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Plotnik, JM, de Waal, FBM and Reiss, D 2006 Self-recognition in an Asian elephant. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 103: 17053–17057CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Povinelli, DJ, Bering, JM and Giambrone, S 2000 Toward a science of other minds. Cognitive Science 24: 509–541CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reader, SM and Laland, KN 2002 Social intelligence, innovation, and enhanced brain size in primates. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 99: 4436–4441CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Reiss, D and Marino, L 2001 Mirror self-recognition in the bottlenose dolphin: a case of cognitive convergence. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 98: 5937–5942CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Scharff, C and Haesler, S 2005 An evolutionary perspective on FoxP2: strictly for the birds? Current Opinion in Neurobiology 15: 694–703CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Stone, VE, Baron-Cohen, S, Calder, AJ, Keane, J and Young, A 2003 Acquired theory of mind impairments in individuals with bilateral amygdala lesions. Neuropsychologia 41: 209–220CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Stuss, DT, Gallup, GG and Alexander, MP 2001 The frontal lobes are necessary for ‘theory of mind’. Brain 124: 279–286CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Suddendorf, T and Busby, J 2003 Mental time travel in animals. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 7: 391–396CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tate, AJ, Fischer, H, Leigh, AE and Kendrick, KM 2006 Behavioural and neurophysiological evidence for face identity and face emotion processing in animals. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, Series B — Biological Sciences 361: 2155–2172CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Uddin, LQ, Kaplan, JT, Molnar-Szakacs, I, Zaidel, E and Iacobini, M 2005 Self-face recognition activates a frontoparietal “mirror” network in the right hemisphere: an event related fMRI study. NeuroImage 25: 926–935CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Webb, DM and Zhang, J 2005 FoxP2 in song-learning birds and vocal-learning. Journal of Heredity 96: 212–216CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed