Tag Archive for 'Intelligence'

Plant induced responses to environmental stressors are increasingly studied in a behavioral ecology context. This is particularly true for plant induced responses to herbivory that mediate direct and indirect defenses, and tolerance. These seemingly adaptive alterations of plant defense phenotypes in the context of other environmental conditions have led to the discussion of such responses as intelligent behavior. In their paper, Kessler & Mueller consider the concept of plant intelligence and some of its predictions for chemical information transfer in plant interaction with other organisms. Image credit: Becky.

Are Plants Really Intelligent?

Jun 17, 2024 by News Staff

The tall goldenrod (Solidago altissima), a North American species of goldenrod in the family Asteraceae, can perceive other plants nearby without ever...

Tyrannosaurus rex holotype specimen at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Pittsburgh, the United States. Image credit: Scott Robert Anselmo / CC BY-SA 3.0.

How Smart Were Tyrannosaurus rex and Other Large Theropod Dinosaurs?

Apr 29, 2024 by News Staff

Large theropods were as smart as reptiles but not as intelligent as monkeys, according to new research led by University of Bristol paleontologists. Tyrannosaurus...

Babies are able to learn abstract relations before the first year of life. Image credit: Kang Heungbo.

Study: Human Infants Outperform AI in Detecting What Motivates Other People’s Actions

Feb 22, 2023 by News Staff

Human infants are fascinated by other people. They bring to this fascination a constellation of rich and flexible expectations about the intentions motivating...

Network modeling of fluid intelligence. Image credit: Cipolotti et al., doi: 10.1093/brain/awac304.

Neuroscientists Identify Brain Regions Necessary for Fluid Intelligence

Jan 3, 2023 by News Staff

Fluid intelligence is arguably the defining feature of human cognition. It predicts educational and professional success, social mobility, health, and...

Zolotarov et al. propose that miRNAs are intimately linked to the evolution of complex brains in octopuses and other animals. Image credit: Albert Kok / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Study: microRNAs are Key to Evolution of Complex Octopus Brain

Dec 30, 2022 by News Staff

Octopuses and their cephalopod relatives are exceptionally intelligent invertebrates with a highly complex nervous system that evolved independently from...

The dinosauroid by Dale Russell and Ron Séguin. Image credit: Canadian Museum of Nature / Darren Naish & Will Tattersdill, doi: 10.1139/cjes-2020-0172.

What If Non-Avian Dinosaurs Hadn’t Gone Extinct?

Nov 28, 2022 by The Conversation

About 66 million years ago, a 10-km-wide asteroid crashed into Earth near the site of the small town of Chicxulub in what is now Mexico. The impact unleashed...

Octopuses can solve complex puzzles and show a preference for different individuals. Image credit: Edmond Lafoto.

Do Mollusks and Crustaceans Have Emotions?

Mar 25, 2022 by News Staff

If the United Kingdom joins a handful of other nations to recognize the sentience of invertebrates, such as octopuses, crabs, lobsters and crayfish, by,...

Four possible domains of planetary intelligence: (a) on a planet with an immature biosphere (such as the Earth during the Archean Eon) there are insufficient feedback loops between life and geophysical coupled systems to exert strong co-evolution; (b) on a planet with a mature biosphere (such as Earth after the Proterozoic) the biosphere exerts strong forcing on the geophysical state establishing full co-evolution of the entire system; this feedback may provide some degree of long-term stabilizing (i.e. Gaian) modulations for the full system; (c) on a planet with an immature technosphere (represented by the current Anthropocene Earth) feedbacks from technological activity produce strong enough forcing on the coupled planetary system to drive it into new dynamical states; these forcings however are unconstrained by intention relative to the health of the civilization producing the technology; (d) on a planet with a mature technosphere, feedback loops between technological activity and biogeochemical and biogeophysical states have been intentionally modified to ensure maximum stability and productivity of the full system; alongside each planetary image, we show a schematic atmospheric spectrum; an immature biosphere would show an atmosphere mostly in equilibrium dominated perhaps by carbon dioxide (CO2); in a mature biosphere life would have changed atmospheric chemistry leading to a highly non-equilibrium state such as perhaps high concentrations of oxygen (O2); in an immature technosphere new ‘pollutant’ species appear, such as CFCs, while industrial activities such as combustion may alter the abundance of other pre-existing gases like CO2 and methane; in a mature technosphere all atmospheric constituents may have their concentrations modified to produce long-term stable and productive states for the full (civilization + biosphere) system; this is represented via a range of possible peaks for different constituents. Image credit: Frank et al., doi: 10.1017/S147355042100029X.

Can Planets Be Intelligent?

Feb 22, 2022 by News Staff

Conventionally, intelligence is seen as a property of individuals. However, it is also known to be a property of collectives. Examples include collective-decision-making...

The common cuttlefish (Sepia officinalis). Image credit: Roger Hanlon.

Cuttlefish Pass Fishy Version of ‘Marshmallow Test’

Mar 4, 2021 by News Staff

New research led by the University of Cambridge and the Marine Biological Laboratory demonstrates that common cuttlefish (Sepia officinalis) can tolerate...

Power et al. revealed that there were declines of approximately two IQ points over time in young people who use cannabis frequently compared to those who didn’t use cannabis; further analysis suggested that this decline in IQ points was primarily related to reduction in verbal IQ. Image credit: Felipe B. Marques.

Frequent Cannabis Use in Adolescence May Lower Your IQ

Feb 3, 2021 by News Staff

A systematic review and meta-analysis of seven longitudinal studies published in the journal Psychological Medicine shows evidence for an almost two-point...

Kipping uses Bayesian statistics to shed light on how extraterrestrial life might evolve in the Universe. Image credit: Dina Dee.

Astronomer Uses Bayesian Statistics to Weigh Likelihood of Complex Life and Intelligence beyond Earth

May 19, 2020 by News Staff

In a new study published this week in the Proceeding of the National Academy of Sciences, Dr. David Kipping of Columbia University and Flatiron Institute...

Gutiérrez-Ibáñez et al found that SpM is greatly enlarged in parrots. Image credit: Edmond Lafoto.

Researchers Identify Brain Circuit Responsible for Cognition in Parrots

Jul 5, 2018 by News Staff

A group of neuroscientists from the Universities of Lethbridge and Alberta, both in Canada, has identified a neural circuit that may underlay intelligence...

According to Briscoe et al, IT neurons were present in the last common ancestor of birds and mammals. Image credit: Susanne J.

Study: Mammals and Birds Share Neuronal Cell Types Linked to Intelligence

Mar 2, 2018 by News Staff

Neuronal cell types in the avian brains linked to goal-directed behaviors and cognition are similar to cells in a region of the mammalian brain called...

This is the first study to examine the relation between general intelligence scores and delayed gratification abilities in common chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes). Image credit: Bernd Hildebrandt.

Chimps’ Self-Control is Related to General Intelligence: Study

Feb 9, 2018 by News Staff

Chimpanzees’ overall intelligence is correlated to their ability to exert self-control and delay gratification, according to a study published in the...

According to Seidlitz et al, morphometric similarity mapping provides a novel, robust, and biologically plausible approach to understanding how human brain networks underpin individual differences in psychological functions. Image credit: Gordon Johnson.

Novel Technique Reveals Relationship between IQ and Brain Connectivity

Jan 8, 2018 by News Staff

A simple technique for mapping the wiring of the brain — called morphometric similarity mapping — has shown a correlation between how well...

Once standing on the mat, elephants were instructed to pick up the stick and give it to the experimenter. Image credit: E. Gilchrist.

Elephants Have Surprising Level of Self-Understanding

Apr 18, 2017 by News Staff

According to new research, Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) are able to recognize their own bodies as obstacles to success in problem-solving, further...

Chimpanzee Intelligence Depends on Genes, Finds New Study

Jul 11, 2014 by News Staff

New research led by Prof William Hopkins of Georgia State University and Emory University has found that some cognitive abilities in chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes)...