Launching a new platform for international collaborations to explore evolutionary origins of social cognition
Project Gist
Launching a new platform for international collaborations to explore evolutionary origins of social cognition
Keywords
Social cognition, Comparative Cognitive Science, Primate, Evolution,International platform
Background and Purpose
Environment surrounding us is full of complexity. One of the most important stimuli in our environment is belong to social domain. We human adjust or modify our own behaviors according to social factors in a collaborative manner or sometime in a competitive manner to better perform in our daily life. The cognitive abilities which allow us to do so is specifically called social cognition. By exploring evolutionary origins of such social cognition, we could better depict our own characteristics from the biological perspective. In this project, therefore, we aim to launch up an international platform to explore primate origins of human social cognition.
Project Achievements
We had mutual visits between the Center for the Evolutionary Origins of Human Behavior (EHUB), Kyoto University and Language Research Center (LRC), Georgia State University to share the current setups in our laboratories and on-going projects to further discuss and frame a better scope of stable collaboration. Unfortunately, we could not hold large-scale research conferences due to the COVID-19 impact. We, however, successfully made individual visits to multiple researchers in multiple institutions to expand and strengthen our international platform to explore primate origins of social cognition. Meanwhile, we launched up the first model case of collaboration between LRC and EHUB targeting primate origins of empathy.
Future Prospects
We have successfully established an international team focusing on primate origins of social cognition with an access to two ape species (chimpanzees and bonobos), two macaque species (rhesus monkeys and Japanese monkeys), and capuchin monkeys. We are now making proposals to apply for some funds to sustainably operate and develop our international platform.
Figure
project with LRC members
Principal Investigator
ADACHI Ikuma
Center for theEvolutionary Origins of Human Behavior
He earned his doctorate on his comparative cognitive approaches to concept formation in nonhumans in Graduate School of Letters, Kyoto University. His long-term research goal is to better understand the evolution of cognitive abilities in human and nonhumans. He recently explores primate origins of cognitive abilities underlying social interaction.
