How Culture Drove Human Evolution | Conversation | Edge

How Culture Drove Human Evolution | Conversation | Edge: The emergence of high-moralizing gods is an important example of this. In small-scale hunter-gatherer religions, the gods are typically whimsical. They're amoral. They're not concerned with your sexual behavior or your social behavior. Often you'll make bargains with them, but as we begin to move to the religions in more complex societies, we find that the gods are increasingly moralizing. They're concerned about exactly the kinds of things that are going to be a problem for running a large-scale society, like how you treat other members of your religious group or your ethnic group.

Review - The Primate Mind - Psychology

Review - The Primate Mind - Psychology: One of the most intriguing is found in the first section "From Understanding the Actions of Others to Culture" in which several authors review current research on mirror neurons and other neural systems in primates in an attempt to show how this neural structure offers a mechanistic explanation of how primates are affected by the behavior of others. What is distinctive about this approach is the authors' contribution to the topics of imitation and culture in primates by attempting to show how mirror neurons and the neural processing of others may be the building blocks for the evolution of imitation, empathy, and social rules in primates.

Stanford biologist and computer scientist discover the 'anternet' | School of Engineering

Stanford biologist and computer scientist discover the 'anternet' | School of Engineering: "Ants have discovered an algorithm that we know well, and they've been doing it for millions of years," Prabhakar said.

Does Self-Awareness Require a Complex Brain? | Brainwaves, Scientific American Blog Network

Does Self-Awareness Require a Complex Brain? | Brainwaves, Scientific American Blog Network: "Presumably, human infants are conscious—they perceive and respond to people and things around them—but they are not yet self-aware."

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Does Self-Awareness Require a Complex Brain? | Brainwaves, Scientific American Blog Network

Does Self-Awareness Require a Complex Brain? | Brainwaves, Scientific American Blog Network: "Humans are more than just conscious—they are also self-aware. Scientists differ on the difference between consciousness and self-awareness, but here is one common explanation: Consciousness is awareness of one’s body and one’s environment; self-awareness is recognition of that consciousness—not only understanding that one exists, but further understanding that one is aware of one’s existence. Another way of thinking about it: To be conscious is to think; to be self-aware is to realize that you are a thinking being and to think about your thoughts. Presumably, human infants are conscious—they perceive and respond to people and things around them—but they are not yet self-aware. In their first years of life, infants develop a sense of self, learn to recognize themselves in the mirror and to distinguish their own point of view from other people’s perspectives."

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Brain complexity led humans to evolve differently than chimps

Brain complexity led humans to evolve differently than chimps: ""The biggest differences occurred in the expression of human genes involved in plasticity - the ability of the brain to process information and adapt. This supports the premise that the human brain evolved to enable higher rates of learning," said Konopka."

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Frontiers | The role of prediction in social neuroscience | Frontiers in Human Neuroscience

Frontiers | The role of prediction in social neuroscience | Frontiers in Human Neuroscience: "These accounts of the mirror neuron system highlight the potential role of predictive mechanisms, particularly simulation, and inference with the predictive coding, and associative learning accounts, in social interaction. Consequently, these accounts could legitimately be extended to highlight the role of prediction, simulation and inference in other non-motor social cognitions associated with mirror neuron activity. Inference-based accounts of the mirror neuron system could potentially apply to some examples of work in social neuroscience showing that mirror neuron activity has been implicated in the distinction between self and other (Sinigaglia and Rizzolatti, 2011), mentalizing (De Lange et al., 2008; Centelles et al., 2011) and simulation of emotions (Bastiaansen et al., 2009). Even though the mirror neuron hypothesis provides a very appealing explanation for the processing of others' actions, there are other theories also related to predictive mechanisms that propose integrative frameworks for sensorimotor control and social interaction."

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