Evolution and neural representation of mammalian cooperative behavior
Mengping Jiang,
Miaoyaoxin Wang,
Qianqian Shi,
Lei Wei,
Yongqin Lin,
Dingcheng Wu,
Boyi Liu,
Xiupeng Nie,
Hong Qiao,
Lin Xu,
Tianming Yang,
Zuoren Wang
Affiliations
Mengping Jiang
Institute of Neuroscience, State Key Laboratory of Neuroscience, CAS Center for Excellence in Brain Science & Intelligence Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200031, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
Miaoyaoxin Wang
Institute of Neuroscience, State Key Laboratory of Neuroscience, CAS Center for Excellence in Brain Science & Intelligence Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200031, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
Qianqian Shi
Institute of Neuroscience, State Key Laboratory of Neuroscience, CAS Center for Excellence in Brain Science & Intelligence Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200031, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
Lei Wei
Institute of Neuroscience, State Key Laboratory of Neuroscience, CAS Center for Excellence in Brain Science & Intelligence Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200031, China
Yongqin Lin
Institute of Neuroscience, State Key Laboratory of Neuroscience, CAS Center for Excellence in Brain Science & Intelligence Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200031, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
Dingcheng Wu
Institute of Neuroscience, State Key Laboratory of Neuroscience, CAS Center for Excellence in Brain Science & Intelligence Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200031, China
Boyi Liu
Institute of Neuroscience, State Key Laboratory of Neuroscience, CAS Center for Excellence in Brain Science & Intelligence Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200031, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
Xiupeng Nie
Key Laboratory of Animal Models and Human Disease Mechanisms and Laboratory of Learning and Memory, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, Yunnan 650223, China
Hong Qiao
State Key Laboratory of Management and Control for Complex Systems, Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
Lin Xu
Key Laboratory of Animal Models and Human Disease Mechanisms and Laboratory of Learning and Memory, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, Yunnan 650223, China
Tianming Yang
Institute of Neuroscience, State Key Laboratory of Neuroscience, CAS Center for Excellence in Brain Science & Intelligence Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200031, China; Corresponding author
Zuoren Wang
Institute of Neuroscience, State Key Laboratory of Neuroscience, CAS Center for Excellence in Brain Science & Intelligence Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200031, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China; Corresponding author
Summary: Cooperation is common in nature and is pivotal to the development of human society. However, the details of how and why cooperation evolved remain poorly understood. Cross-species investigation of cooperation may help to elucidate the evolution of cooperative strategies. Thus, we design an automated cooperative behavioral paradigm and quantitatively examine the cooperative abilities and strategies of mice, rats, and tree shrews. We find that social communication plays a key role in the establishment of cooperation and that increased cooperative ability and a more efficient cooperative strategy emerge as a function of the evolutionary hierarchy of the tested species. Moreover, we demonstrate that single-unit activities in the orbitofrontal and prelimbic cortex in rats represent neural signals that may be used to distinguish between the cooperative and non-cooperative tasks, and such signals are distinct from the reward signals. Both signals may represent distinct components of the internal drive for cooperation.
