Project description
Engineered interdependence reveals how and why the human mind evolved
Interdependence has been identified as a key factor in human cognitive evolution, distinguishing us from the rest of the great apes. However, testing this idea empirically presents a major challenge. The EU-funded ENGINE project will develop a process-oriented working model of human cognitive evolution and evaluate it by engineering interdependence in marmoset monkeys. Researchers will produce an inter-dependent lineage of marmosets that will only be able to overcome daily challenges, like finding food and defending against outside groups and predators, through cooperation. Meanwhile, an independent lineage will have to overcome these challenges via individual effort. Researchers will examine both immediate and long-term effects, when mandatory interdependence is experienced during ontogeny and over generations of animals.
Objective
The human mind is very similar to that of other great apes, yet also strikingly different, and a vast body of research converges on one conclusion: this gap is fundamentally social. Moreover, it emerges early in ontogeny, reflects the distinctly human neurochemical profile, and is characterized by physiological, hormonal, and behavioural synchronicity. But why did this gap evolve in the first place, and why was it us, rather than any of the other great apes, who diverged so dramatically and evolved this unique socio-cognitive niche? Multiple proposals stress interdependence as the key factor during human cognitive evolution, but testing this idea empirically remains a major challenge for the field. ENGINE sets out to do so, by proposing a process-oriented working model of human cognitive evolution in which interdependence takes centre stage, and testing it by engineering interdependence in the marmoset monkey, the emerging next-generation model for human social behaviour. I will thus produce an inter-dependent lineage of marmosets that will only be able to overcome daily challenges (i.e. finding food, defence against out-groups and predators, securing comfort) via mandatory cooperation, whereas an in-dependent lineage will have to overcome these challenges via individual effort. I will investigate downstream effects of this experimentally induced variation in interdependence on neurochemistry, synchronization at various levels, and cognitive outcomes. I will examine both immediate and long-term effects, when mandatory interdependence is experienced during ontogeny and over generations of animals. I will complement this engineering part by studies with human children, and validate it with wild marmosets. ENGINE thus allows us for the first time to comprehensively assess how interdependence affects socio-cognitive functioning in nonhuman primates, which brings us a crucial step forward in understanding how and why the human mind evolved.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
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Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
ERC-COG - Consolidator GrantHost institution
8006 Zurich
Switzerland