VII. Our Earthuman Ascent: A Major Evolutionary Transition in Twindividuality

1. Systems Physiology and Psychology: Somatic and Behavioral Development

Farris, Sarah. Evolution of Brain Elaboration. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B. Vol.370/Iss.1684, 2015. In a special issue on the Origin and Evolution of the Nervous System, in these 2010s when scientific fields are reaching integral confirmations, a West Virginia University neurobiologist perceives life’s encephalization of neural anatomies as a developmental ramification from a common topology present in the earliest rudiments. See also Convergent Evolution of Complex Brains and High Intelligence by Gerhard Roth in this edition (Abstract below). Life’s emergent cerebration again appears to follow a prescribed, expansive trajectory, akin to an embryogeny, toward better cognizance of which such studies are its latest worldwide phase.

Large, complex brains have evolved independently in several lineages of protostomes and deuterostomes. Sensory centres in the brain increase in size and complexity in proportion to the importance of a particular sensory modality, yet often share circuit architecture because of constraints in processing sensory inputs. The selective pressures driving enlargement of higher, integrative brain centres has been more difficult to determine, and may differ across taxa. The capacity for flexible, innovative behaviours, including learning and memory and other cognitive abilities, is commonly observed in animals with large higher brain centres. Despite differences in the exact behaviours under selection, evolutionary increases in brain size tend to derive from common modifications in development and generate common architectural features, even when comparing widely divergent groups such as vertebrates and insects. These similarities may in part be influenced by the deep homology of the brains of all Bilateria, in which shared patterns of developmental gene expression give rise to positionally, and perhaps functionally, homologous domains. Other shared modifications of development appear to be the result of homoplasy, such as the repeated, independent expansion of neuroblast numbers through changes in genes regulating cell division. The common features of large brains in so many groups of animals suggest that given their common ancestry, a limited set of mechanisms exist for increasing structural and functional diversity, resulting in many instances of homoplasy in bilaterian nervous systems. (Farris Abstract)

Within the animal kingdom, complex brains and high intelligence have evolved several to many times independently, e.g. among ecdysozoans in some groups of insects (e.g. blattoid, dipteran, hymenopteran taxa), among lophotrochozoans in octopodid molluscs, among vertebrates in teleosts (e.g. cichlids), corvid and psittacid birds, and cetaceans, elephants and primates. High levels of intelligence are invariantly bound to multimodal centres such as the mushroom bodies in insects, the vertical lobe in octopodids, the pallium in birds and the cerebral cortex in primates, all of which contain highly ordered associative neuronal networks. The driving forces for high intelligence may vary among the mentioned taxa, e.g. needs for spatial learning and foraging strategies in insects and cephalopods, for social learning in cichlids, instrumental learning and spatial orientation in birds and social as well as instrumental learning in primates. (Roth Abstract)

Fitch, W. Tecumseh, et al. Social Cognition and the Evolution of Language. Neuron. 65/6, 2010. University of Vienna cognitive biologists argue that an expansion over the past decade of the domains and extent of cultural activities from primates across to mammalian and avian species reveals many “homologous and analogous similarities.” So once more nature is found to repeat and recapitulate, in stepwise fashion, the same native, cumulative edification.

Fogel, Alan and Andrea Garvey. Alive Communication. Infant Behavior and Development. 30/2, 2007. A systems perspective increasingly illumines child psychology, here applied to explain social discourse, especially between child and care-giver, as a self-organizing dialogue.

The concept of alive communication focuses on the dynamically changing aspects of communication using three related components: coregulation, ordinary variability and innovation. (251)

Fogel, Alan, et al, eds. Human Development in the Twenty-First Century. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008. With co-editors Barbara King and Stuart Shanker, a manifesto for a dynamical “systems psychology” (my phrase) to move the endeavor from individuals alone to the equally real connections and relationships between people. Four parts range from genetics and environments to children in families and societies and to mental health issues. Since the early 1990s, much through the efforts of Linda Smith and the late Esther Thelen, as this site documents, a revolution to reconceive child and developmental science in terms of dynamic systems theory or DST has been in process. The above volume is a sign it has reached a maturity both in concept and application. An essay book review by David Witherington and Tessa Margett can be found in Human Development (52/2, 2009) from which the quote accrues.

The dynamic systems approach is rooted in the centrality of relationship for understanding complex form, both in the real-time generation and maintenance of pattern and in the ontogenetic emergence and consolidation of pattern. In contrast to the more traditional, reductionist approach to understanding organization, which relies on a breaking down of systems in order to study their parts isolation of one another, the dynamic systems approach emphasizes the need for studying the relationships that exist among parts rather than the parts themselves. (251)

Fortrat, Jacques-Olivier. Zipf’s Law of Vasovagal Heart Rate Variability Sequences. Entropy. 22/4, 2020. This entry by a UMR CNRS, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Angers, France systems physiologist notably proceeds to find complexity phenomena at similar effect even in active cardiac function. As the quotes say, not only does its critical poise serve an optimum viability, but by this feature, the vital heart gains an affinity with brains, other organs and widely beyond. These latest findings set aside a homeostatic equilibrium model for a 21st century dynamic self-organization. Further afield, a parallel to linguistic patterns becomes evident, with beats akin to words. In this 2020 a true unity of heart, mind and prose/poetry sensitivity can be appreciated. See also Self-Organization of Blood Pressure Regulation by Fortrat and Claude Gharib in Frontiers in Physiology (March 30, 2016), Physical Mathematic Evaluation of the Cardiac Dynamic Applying the Zipf-Mandelbrot Law by Javier Oswaldo-Rodriguez, et al in Journal of Modern Physics (6/1881, 2015) and Day and Night Changes of Cardiovascular Complexity by Paolo Castiglioni, et al in Entropy (22/4, 2020).

Cardiovascular self-organized criticality (SOC) has recently been demonstrated by studying vasovagal sequences. These sequences combine bradycardia and a decrease in blood pressure. Our primary aim was to verify whether SOC could be studied by solely observing bradycardias and by showing their distribution according to Zipf’s law. Bradycardias are distributed according to Zipf’s law, providing clear insight into cardiovascular SOC. Bradycardia distribution could provide an interesting diagnosis tool for some cardiovascular diseases. (Abstract)

Self-organized criticality has emerged as a major topic in the study of dynamical systems and as a unifying theory across science fields, including physics, chemistry, ecology, and biology. A better understanding of its meaning and implications for the cardiovascular system is needed. Zipf’s law has initially been described based on word occurrence in a text: the frequency of any word in a text is inversely proportional to its rank of occurrence. This law has been inscribed into beat-by-beat recordings of the heart rate. These recordings show a linear distribution of nonspecific consecutive heart rate sequences across several beats, these sequences being the “words” of the cardiovascular system “language”. (2)

In this study, we tried to stay close to the natural physiological language of the cardiovascular system. This approach allowed us to define a simple method with strong evidence of Zipf’s law in the cardiovascular dynamics. However, further studies may help to
better define the natural cardiovascular language to better characterize Zipf’s law and the self-organized properties of the cardiovascular function. (9)

Francois, Paul and Victoria Mochulska. Waves, patterns, bifurcations: A tutorial review on the vertebrate segmentation clock. Physics Reports. Volume 1080, 2024. University of Montreal and McGill University, Canada biophysicists post a comprehensive 100 page, 300 reference, pediasphere quantification of nature’s embryonic cellular somitogenesis procedures across fish, reptile, avian and mammalian species. As a result, complex, scalar, orderly self-organization systems are similarly evident for life’s apparent evolutionary gestation, all the way, so it seems, to our retrospective Earthkinder progeny. In 2024, this certain contribution can exemplify the theoretic syntheses that have now become possible. As I log on in June, altogether they promise to verify a natural orthogenesis.

Proper vertebrae formation relies on a tissue-wide oscillator called the segmentation clock. Individual cellular oscillators in the presomitic mesoderm are modulated by intercellular coupling and external signals, leading to the oscillatory waves of genetic expression which stabilize into a static pattern. Here, we review four decades of biophysical models of this process, starting from the Clock and Wavefront and reaction–diffusion models. Modern descriptions in molecular description and process visualization lead to phase, delayed, systems-level, and finally geometric models. We then refer to embryonic development and scaling via wave propagation. (Excerpt)

The field has then been strongly driven by the constant experimental progress in molecular biology, genetics, imaging, and more recently synthetic biology, allowing scientists to explore more complex and refined scenarios, that we will describe. Many of the most recent ideas described in the following also find their origin in the era of ‘‘systems biology’’, with a focus on the (emergent) properties of gene regulatory networks, (4)

Somitoenesis is the process by which somites form. Somites are bilaterally paired blocks of paraxial mesoderm that form along the anterior-posterior axis of the developing embryo in segmented animals. In vertebrates, somites give rise to skeletal muscle, cartilage, tendons, endothelium, and dermis.

Friederici, Angela, et al. Maturation of the Language Network: From Inter- to Intrahemispheric Connectivities. PLoS One. 6/6, 2011. We note this work by Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences neuropsychologists because it describes youth to adult transitions from an earlier mode of cross-hemisphere communication to later more separate asymmetries. On measure, this sequence moves from an integral, right, balance to a left, detailed, verbose emphasis, which human cognitive history neatly seems to recapitulate.

Language development must go hand-in-hand with brain maturation. Little is known about how the brain develops to serve language processing, in particular, the processing of complex syntax, a capacity unique to humans. Behavioral reports indicate that the ability to process complex syntax is not yet adult-like by the age of seven years. Here, we apply a novel method to demonstrate that the basic neural basis of language, as revealed by low frequency fluctuation stemming from functional MRI data, differs between six-year-old children and adults in crucial aspects. Although the classical language regions are actively in place by the age of six, the functional connectivity between these regions clearly is not. In contrast to adults who show strong connectivities between frontal and temporal language regions within the left hemisphere, children's default language network is characterized by a strong functional interhemispheric connectivity, mainly between the superior temporal regions. These data indicate a functional reorganization of the neural network underlying language development towards a system that allows a close interplay between frontal and temporal regions within the left hemisphere. (Abstract)

Gao, Helena Hong and John Holland. Agent-Based Models of Levels of Consciousness. Santa Fe Institute Working Papers. 08-12-047, 2008. As part of a SFI project on language complexities (search Beckner), a Nanyang Technological University developmental linguist and the University of Michigan founder of complex adaptive systems theory perceive a six stage, infant to child, process by which reflective awareness arises: Unconscious (instinctive) activity, Minimal, Stimulus-response, Simple recursive (ask for food when visible), Extended recursive (I’m hungry), and Self-consciousness. A tacit assumption would seem to be our individual recapitulations of how primates evolved stepwise unto knowing utterances.

This paper is based on recent interdisciplinary experimental studies that emphasize the steps in language acquisition during the first few years of life. These steps are characterized as changes in levels of consciousness. The object is to place successive levels of consciousness in a complex adaptive systems (CAS) framework, a framework that centers on learning agents that interact via exchanges of signals such as gestures and utterances. The CAS framework thus provides a strong emphasis on the social nature of language acquisition and evolution. The models described are exploratory, not predictive. As such, the models are meant to suggest new mechanisms and experiments that will increase our understanding of language. (Abstract)

Gershkoff-Stowe, Lisa and Esther Thelen. U-Shaped Changes in Behavior: A Dynamic Systems Perspective. Journal of Cognition and Development. 5/1, 2004. As everyone is familiar with, we learn things, then forget or regress, and later on become more accomplished. These child psychologist authors find this ubiquitous path can be conceived as a self-organizing complex system which constantly seeks a better organization from a multitude of interacting modular-like influences.

Gervain, Judit. The Role of Prenatal Experience in Language Development. Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences. 21/62, 2018. This entry by a Laboratoire Psychologie de la Perception, CNRS, Paris linguist is able to report that our human proclivity for linguistic discourse is so strong it can be detected in fetal stages. An infant’s preference for holistic images can be traced back to receptions of rhythmic prosody even in the womb.

Human infants are born linguistic citizens of the world, possessing broad-based, universal perceptual and learning abilities that allow them to start learning any language. After several months of experience, their linguistic system becomes tuned to the sound patterns of their native language(s). Recent results on newborns’ speech perception abilities suggest that this classical view might need to be nuanced, as fetuses seem to learn more from their prenatal experience with speech than previously believed. This paper reviews the growing body of evidence suggesting that newborns are familiar with the prosody of the languages heard in utero, and discusses the implications of this ‘prenatal prosodic bootstrapping’ for subsequent language acquisition. (Abstract)

Ghalati, Pejman, et al. Critical Transitions in Intensive Care Units: A Sepsis Case Study. Nature Scientific Reports. 9/12888, 2019. We cite this contribution by a six person University of Aachen, Joint Research Center for Computational Biomedicine group as another example of how nonlinear physical phenomena can be found in forceful effect even in such physiological, and metabolic traumas. A novel ability to quantify these deep lineaments can then help predict and mitigate.

The progression of complex human diseases is associated with critical transitions across dynamical regimes, which often provide early-warning signals and insights into disease-driving mechanisms. In this paper, we propose a computational method based on surprise loss (SL) to discover data-driven indicators of such transitions in a multivariate time series dataset of septic shock and non-sepsis patient cohorts. The core idea of SL is to train a mathematical model on time series in an unsupervised fashion and to quantify the deterioration of the model’s forecast (out-of-sample) relative to its past (in-sample) performance. Our analysis revealed that critical transitions occurred at a median of over 35 hours before the onset of septic shock, which validates our method as an early-warning indicator. (Abstract excerpt)

Goddu, Mariel and Alison Gopnik. The development of human causal learning and reasoning.. Nature Reviews Psychology.. 3/319, 2024. Stanford University and UC Berkeley psychologists (see websites and search AG) describe their latest work to expansively situate such child psychology endeavors in a deeper span of life’s processional gestation. A further component is an interest to avail new computer science facilities. See also Early-emerging combinatorial thought: Human infants flexibly combine kind and quantity concepts by Barbara Pomiechowska, et al in the PNAS (121/29, 2024) for a similar approach.

Causal understanding is a defining characteristic of human cognition. Like many animals, human children learn to control their bodily movements and act effectively in the environment. Unlike other animals, children grow into adults with the causal reasoning skills to develop abstract theories, invent sophisticated technologies and imagine alternate pasts, distant futures and fictional worlds. In this Review, we explore the development of human-unique causal learning and reasoning from evolutionary and ontogenetic perspectives. We argue that human causal understanding is distinguished by its depersonalized (objective) and decontextualized (general) representations. We conclude with suggestions for collaborations between developmental, cross-cultural, computational, neural and evolutionary approaches to advance these deep continuities.

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