6/1/2013

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Kieran murray To what extent do we misconceive animal intelligence in relation to our own?

Candidate number: 7066

Centre number: 74008

Kieran Murray

Contents

1. Abstract 22. Introduction 23. What is intelligence? 24. The human brain 65. Intelligence in primates 86. Intelligence in elephants 87. Intelligence in cetaceans 98. Intelligence in other animals 109. What are the implications? 1110. Conclusion 1211. Bibliography 1312. Works Cited 15

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AbstractIt is generally accepted that human beings are the most intelligent species on our planet, albeit by humans themselves. Unfortunately, our rise to becoming the first ‘sentient’ animal often leads to the underestimation of the mental capabilities of the other animals. I have gathered evidence from a survey and from scientific literature to try to overcome some of these misconceptions, which seem to have remained in the zeitgeist even though much that we consider uniquely ‘human’, such as creative, logical and emotional behaviour, has been observed in apes, dolphins, elephants and birds. It has been argued that all animals are conscious of their own existence to some extent and several different primates, dolphins and elephants have all been observed to have intelligence comparable to our own, some of them even being able to communicate with us. I believe that overlooking the mental capabilities of other species has serious consequences; ignoring the consciousness of animals has unfortunately led to exploitation and then extinction of many organisms, in the past, present, and if things do not change, the future. Should this continue, we could not only lose the chance to understand ourselves fully, but will eventually inhibit our own survival as the world’s ecosystems collapse. It is my aim to explain these ideas and hopefully to overcome the notion that we are “separate” from the animal kingdom and that intelligence measurement is more of a scale than a black and white concept.

IntroductionIn Charles Darwin’s book The Descent of Man, written in 1871, he opens a chapter about animal intelligence with the statement ‘the difference in mental power between the highest ape and the lowest savage is immense’. By savage, he is referring to a tribesperson or primitively cultured person, and is assuming that no matter how intelligent another species is, they are still ‘lower’ than human beings. It is this view that is commonly held, and that I will be investigating. There is evidence to suggest that although we are undoubtedly the most successful and adaptable species, other species are not as far ‘below us’ as previously though and in some areas they are even above us. After all, we evolved from the same prehistoric species and as a result our brains are structurally similar. This is true not just for the species generally cited to be the most intelligent: the great apes, dolphins and elephants, but for most vertebrates and even some invertebrates. I will only be focusing on animals whose intelligence has been widely researched and generally accepted by the scientific community. Given that the ‘human brain is the most complex thing in the universe’ (Professor Sir. Robin Murray, 2012 (1)), studying the intelligence of other species has the potential to give us insight into our own intelligence.

What is intelligence?The Oxford dictionary defines intelligence as ‘the ability to acquire and apply knowledge and skills’. This is, however, only one way to define a word that has broad and subjective meaning. Intelligence in a species and intelligence in a person will have entirely different definitions. When relating it to species, we can apply often considered ‘uniquely human’ mental aspects to the definition: self-awareness, the ability to understand and empathise and the use of symbolism, among others. Steven Pinker, bestselling social science author, argues that ‘making the correct decisions in pursuit

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of a goal is a pretty good definition of “intelligence”’, in accordance to the ‘computational’ theory of the mind, in which all thoughts and processes are a part of a ‘human made database’ (2). However, no computer yet has the same astonishing powers of reasoning as the human brain, so this definition is still missing a key part of human nature. I undertook an online survey of 21 people in my school grade to find out their views on intelligence and animal cognition. This provided me with an outline of the general consensus on the issues I would be addressing. I am aware this is a non-generalisable sample, meaning that the views of people in my year are not necessarily a representation of what all people think and my findings are therefore not necessarily applicable to the mindset of all people. However opportunity sampling is much easier and quicker to undertake than volunteer or random sampling and I did it for this reason. I found that 61.9% of the people who voted said that we are biologically unique in the animal kingdom, which is an overwhelming majority compared to the 19% that voted that we are not. In fact, humans are not strictly speaking biologically unique; the majority of our biological structures are common to many vertebrates, it is only the number of brain connections that has led to our global adaptability and culture.

Evolutionarily speaking, large, thinking brains solve the problem of sudden change. In a species with limited brain capacity, a sudden loss of food source or a previously undiscovered predator can wipe out a species, as they do not have the ability to learn to respond (3) (4). Those that do not have an ability to learn rely on genetic instincts to avoid danger – as those who avoid dangers will be more likely to pass on their genes. This can take thousands of generations to take effect. As an example in humans most people are instinctively afraid of snakes, large spiders and large predators (5). This is not a problem for fast-breeding animals, but for larger animals (which have longer life spans) adaptability is required to ensure survival and the passing on of genes, which is one of the evolutionary functions of intelligence. Interestingly, this is supported by the findings of my survey: 90.5% of people believe that environment determines intelligence more than genetics in individuals (figure 2). This is most likely due to the fact that the people in my year are all educated, so many would believe their intelligence to be down to that. Perhaps it is our adaptability that has made us intelligent, so children that are raised in educational environments adapt to them by becoming more intelligent. However if this is the case, most common animals surviving today have adapted to the threat of humans by being able to adapt to the new environment; would that not make them intelligent?

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Figure 1

It has been argued that consciousness and self-awareness are exclusive to human beings (6). However, in 2012, an international group of scientists signed The Cambridge Declaration on Consciousness, which stated that all mammals, birds and even some cephalopods are conscious (7). Consciousness itself is explained with a multitude of approaches: psychology, sociology, philosophy, theology, meditation, literature, psychiatry, anthropology, and many more (8). Our perception of consciousness is how we feel, and how we believe we feel, which on a personal level is immaterial and immeasurable. For instance, a feeling of nausea, which we perceive as an affliction of the entire body, in reality, does not materially exist (9). This personal bias corrupts many studies into consciousness, and from my survey it was also made clear that the majority of people in my sample are also unaware of the scientific explanations for emotion and consciousness (figure 3). Nick Lane argues in his book ‘Life Ascending’ that consciousness is not as it seems. ‘Consciousness seems too unitary… not fractured into pieces’. Lane compares it to a ‘movie in the head, pictures integrated not only with sounds but with smells, touches, feelings, thoughts, all bound to a sense of self, anchoring our whole being and its experiences to our body’. This is how we perceive it, when in reality all of this is our brain processing the information taken in from the nerves all around the body. In response, neurons in the brain fire, making it appear as one stream of awareness. This can be proven by the many bizarre case studies of brain lesions and injuries, where parts of the brain are afflicted and nullified, affecting people’s perception and behavior in unexpected ways. Oliver Sacks’ most famous case study of Dr. P (better known as ‘the Man who mistook his wife for a hat’) had ‘visual agnosia’, where he had perfect vision but was unable to recognise faces and objects. Once the bias of personal perception is overcome and consciousness is considered strictly in terms of neurons firing, many animals can therefore be considered ‘conscious’. How they see the world and what goes on in their heads can currently not be studied or observed but many can be said to be ‘feeling’ in some way.

Intelligence itself is a subjective matter; even between individuals, common sense and general knowledge are two common first impression measures of intelligence, even though neither will give an accurate representation of that person’s intelligence. Even trying to measure it objectively can be futile; people can be trained to do well in IQ tests, and even post-mortem studies on Albert

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Figure 2

Figure 3

Figure Ernst Haeckel’s tree of evolution (1879), demonstrating the evolution of life and common ancestry of all the major vertebrate groups (More complex and up-to-date version have since been created, but this archaic version is more comprehensible)

Einstein’s brain found only minor differences with an average person. As a result, more theoretical biological approaches have to be taken at this point.

The human brainAll life on Earth is descended from the same organism, known as LUCA (the Last Universal Common Ancestor). The existence of LUCA is, by calculation of biochemist Douglas Theobald, 102,860 times more likely than multiple ancestors. It is generally thought such an organism existed around 4 billion years ago, when the Earth was still a smoldering and hostile planet, and is likely to have resembled a modern bacterium (10). Life existed for over 3 billion years before the first eyes, nerves and recognisable bodies evolved in the form of the very first complex invertebrates. Vertebrates first appeared only around 500 million years ago, and led to the subsequent evolution of fish, amphibians, reptiles and mammals.

While our brains are considered to be the most developed in the animal kingdom, the components of brains are similar in most vertebrates. All mammals and all reptiles have a prefrontal cortex in their brain, which has been shown to control emotions and some degree of consciousness. Swedish neuroscientist Bjorn Merker’s

case studies of patients with hydranecephaly (a disorder that leads to the majority of the brain being reabsorbed during pregnancy, instead leaving the cranium mostly filled with brain fluid) have shown that despite severe disability in language, learning and sight, they are still able to show certain emotion through laughter, smiling and crying. (9) This indicates that consciousness and emotion itself may not have suddenly appeared in our species but built up over time, although until consciousness can be objectively measured this can only be theorised. After all, every component of the human brain exists in other primates; the main difference is the number of neuronal connections (11).

The cognition of our brains is wired very similarly to those of other animals. One everyday example of this is that the intonation of spoken messages between people has more overall impact on the receiver than the actual words spoken, whilst 55 percent is entirely nonverbal (12). This is an evolutionary throwback to a time where spoken language was not yet used to communicate, and many basic facial expressions have similar meanings in different species; teeth baring, nostril flaring and smiling all have similar meanings for other primates. Nostril flaring’s origins are said to be to oxygenate the body in preparation for a fight or flight response, which has evolutionary advantages for primates, as it can indicate to the rest of the troop to also prepare for a threat. Body language is, in many respects, more complex than spoken language; take smiling, for instance. It is generally seen as being a positive or friendly gesture between acquainted people, but can also be sarcastic, cruel or maniacal depending on how it is expressed.

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Figure Artist’s impression of Australopithecus (39)

What makes a human’s brain special is the number of connections in the brain; with 86 billion neurons (13) in the whole brain, we have more than 12 times the number of a chimpanzee, and more than three times that of the next highest mammal – the African elephant.

Chimps and humans share a common ancestry of only 6 million years ago. Ancient monkeys first came down from the trees in the jungles of Africa and started walking on two legs 4 million years ago, Australopithecus being one of the first. It has been shown that walking on two feet came before the development of a large brain, and at the time had many benefits; reaching up for food high in the branches, looking out for predators in the tall savannah grass and wading through rivers. Paleontologists still debate other reasons, such as it being a sexual display, and to intimidate predators being two examples. Australopithecus had a brain around the same size as a modern chimpanzee, and brain size deduced from fossil skulls indicate the size of the brain increased from this species onwards. Darwin argued that ‘Man could not have attained his present dominant position without the use of his hands, which are so admirably adapted to act in obedience to his will’ (14). Being bipedal also meant that the chest was opened up, increasing the potential for the apes to project their voice and speak. Once the hands were free, and vocal communication became easier, our brains continued to increase in size. Steven Pinker argued in ‘The Language Instinct’ that the development of language is what made us intelligent, and not the other way around. The use of hands also permitted the use of stone tools, making hunting and gathering much easier. In 1996 a research team discovered stone tools in Ethiopia dating back 2.6 million years ago, with a species of Australopithecus alongside it (3). Being able to harness fire to cook food and turn it into “softer and more calorific forms” is another benefit that has allowed our brains to become disproportionately large for our size (15).

The current biological template for a human being was fully evolved about half a million years ago. Detailed artwork that is up to 40,000 years old has been described by some as being proof of ‘the arrival of the modern mind’ (16) – suggesting that our progress from hunter gatherers to a global ‘superorganism’ of globally aware and pensive individuals is solely down to the environment. Idealistically crafted and detailed artwork from this period is indicative of a fully formed creative mind. The discovery of the 40,000 year old Geißenklösterle flutes suggests that music was already being produced by our early ancestors (16) (17). Biologically accurate artifacts paying tribute to the wild animals of the era, as well as imaginary hybrid creatures, show a mystic fascination and understanding of the creatures around us, thousands of years before any scientists began to study nature. With the separation from the natural ecosystem and the creation of large societies, has this appreciation been lost?

Based on this established knowledge about our evolution, it’s possible to conclude that our minds have reached their current state of complexity through an incremental and gradual development from that of our primate ancestors. Our brains fit the same template that applies to that of all other

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Figure Diana monkey. Credit: © Tom McHugh—The National Audubon Society Collection/Photo Researchers

mammals, which implies our only unique feature is the sheer number of neuronal connections. Does this mean other animals have similar brainpower?

Intelligence in primatesHomo sapiens is only one of six surviving primate species, the others being bonobos, chimpanzees, gorillas and two species of orang-utans. We are more distantly related to monkeys, which resemble our ancestors from around 12 million years ago (3).

Chimpanzees and human beings are commonly cited as having 99% of the same DNA. This is misleading, as this is only accounting for individual base changes in the triplet code (of A,G,C and T). There is a 1.2% difference in single nucleotide changes (so a chimp and a human could have triplet codes of AGG and AGC, and this would be counted as a difference). Compare the differences in whole triplet codes, and we share 96% of our DNA with them (18). Human beings share 90% of their DNA with cats, (19), 80% with cows and 50% with bananas, but interestingly the difference in DNA between humans and chimps is ten times smaller than between mice and rats. Even so, this difference is enormous; there are trillions of triplet codes, each with a great significance, which I believe could take hundreds or even thousands of years to fully understand.

Even our more distant cousins have the roots of language: Diana monkeys have 20 distinct calls, specific ones for each different type of predator, according to a study undertaken for the BBC in 2008 for Natural World (20). They also combine some calls together to signify the importance of a situation, creating simple sentences and compound words. The monkeys only require this level of communication to ensure survival. They are so versatile that eight species in the surrounding area listened to and learned each other’s calls for different predators for their own benefit. Social species use language, and Pinker (2) argues that social species naturally develop larger brains, so the monkeys will have a developed perception. Prehistoric monkeys evolved into humans, who now have the most flexible tongues of all surviving primate species, and therefore we are the only ones that can project our voices enough to speak languages as complex as English, Spanish and Japanese. All other ape species that may have been capable of speech were eradicated by competition with humans thousands of years ago (3), but the surviving ape species still show the roots of languages and may be able to communicate at a greater level if natural selection leads to the development of their anatomy.

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Other apes have vocal cords that cannot fully close, making them incapable of talking to us. However several apes have had some success in learning sign language, which can give us great insight into their intelligence. Washoe, a chimpanzee who was raised in a human environment, showed amazing capabilities of speech, understanding, empathy and articulation when taught sign language in a study by Gardner et al. (21) Washoe could combine words to describe things she did not know the word for (for instance ‘METAL CUP DRINK’ for a thermos flask) and learned around 350 words in total in American sign language. Her grammar and cognition were her limiting factors, but some of the findings were extraordinary. Roger Fouts, a researcher on the project, describes the extent of Washoe’s empathetic behavior:

This anecdote probably provides more satisfying evidence that emotion and empathy are not exclusive to humans than any other. Although the study has problems with validity, since the chimp was raised in a human environment and may be as different from an average chimp intellectually as a boy raised by wolves, but at the same time the implications are profound.

The intelligence of our closest primate cousins are an echo of our own cognition and show the origin of our own rise to become a global superorganism (18). These species have been studied at great depth, and although our understanding of them is still improving constantly there are other distantly related mammals and birds that also have brainpower of a comparable level.

Intelligence in elephantsThe saying ‘elephants never forget’ may be more of an idiom than a scientific fact, but does have a large element of truth in it, as they have been observed to have powerful memory. A study published in an issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences showed that they not only cooperate but can work as a team to accomplish goals. The study even noted that the elephants managed to deduce a method of obtaining food that the researchers themselves had overlooked. (22). Such research is likely to be very scientific and valid, although it is often reported extravagantly and light-heatedly by the media – to say that the elephants ‘outwitted’ the researchers as one article stated (22)is not only unsupported by any evidence, but, as critic Justin Smith pointed out, ‘ inevitably transform[s] any intelligence animals might display into the same old familiar circus performance’ (11).

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People who should be there for her and aren't are often given the cold shoulder--her way of informing them that she's miffed at them. Washoe greeted Kat [the caretaker] in just this way when she finally returned to work with the chimps. Kat made her apologies to Washoe, then decided to tell her the truth, signing "MY BABY DIED." Washoe stared at

her, then looked down. She finally peered into Kat's eyes again and carefully signed "CRY", touching her cheek and drawing her finger down the path a tear would make on a human. [Chimpanzees don't cry themselves] Kat later remarked that one sign told her

more about Washoe and her mental capabilities than all her longer, grammatically perfect sentences. (21)

Figure the brains of several animal species compared. (41)

It is not only brain power that puts elephants on par with us, but their extremely complex social hierarchies and emotional behaviors. Some individuals suffer from a form post-traumatic stress disorder (23), remembering abusive trainers and becoming more aggressive in areas where war and hunting are rife, showing the extent of their emotional complexity. For instance, baby elephants that have witnessed their parents being killed have woken up screaming, implying they have dreams and nightmares based on experiences, and also grieve for loved ones (24). Is this not relatable to human behaviour?

Intelligence in cetaceansCetaceans have captivated the human psyche for centuries, be it the voracious Moby Dick or the Day of the Dolphin. These stories represent our lack of understanding of these mostly peaceful creatures as being fearsome and devious. Science has come a long way since then, but dolphins, whales and porpoises are still largely misunderstood, and only now are we beginning to see how they are intelligent enough to be counted as equals.

A typical way of measuring the intelligence of an organism is by looking at the size of its brain – although as I will mention in the next section, an animal with a small lightweight brain like a crow can also be classed as ‘one of the very smartest creatures we know’ (25). A better way of measuring it is by looking at the texture of the outside of the brain. Making the surface area of the brain larger is a better way of increasing the size without making the skull so large that giving birth is impaired. A human brain is like ‘a shriveled walnut’ (5), covered in grooves and wrinkles that form a structure called the cerebral cortex (fig.4). In simplest terms, the cerebral cortex is what gives us higher level processing (26). Dolphins, too, have a wrinkled brain, suggesting they too have advanced processing. Interestingly the two lobes of dolphin brains also have separate blood flow, and can ‘switch off’ either side (27). This means that a dolphin is always alert, as only one side of its brain sleeps at a time. How this impacts its processing is yet to be discovered.

Dolphins possess behavioral traits similar to our own. They call each other by name (28), invent games, use creative means of getting food more efficiently, form friendship groups, exhibit having sex for pleasure (including homosexual practices), and show an awareness of their reflection in a mirror being themselves. (4). It is worth noting, however, that the mirror test may not be a great measure of self-awareness, as other animals use different senses as their primary sense (such as dogs and smell) (29).

Both dolphins and whales show great creativity, curiosity and idealism in many situations; dolphins in California learned how to work together to drive fish into areas where they had disturbed sediment, trapping them and causing the fish to jump out of the water into the dolphin’s open mouths. Certain individual dolphins then taught these methods to their offspring (4), much like the passing on of wisdom and knowledge that occurs in our parental relationships.

Dolphins live complex social lives, and communicate via echolocation and body language. Dolphin expert

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Denise Herzing, part of the Wild Dolphin Project has studied dolphin communication for 26 years. They are the only known animals to have names for each other, and like humans form long-term friendships and social groups. One example is adolescent ‘gangs’ that have been observed to synchronise their movements and invent their own ‘gang whistles’ to impress females. In BBC Documentary ‘Ocean Giants’, two spotted dolphin ‘gangs’ were observed lying on the ocean floor and exchanging a series of high-pitched squeaks and aggressive body language, to make them appear larger. At a certain point, all dolphins suddenly swim off, suggesting they undertook some form of ‘argument’. This complex communication and social hierarchy is yet to be fully understood but provokes little doubt of their mental capacity. However, progress is being made constantly: Herzing believes ‘the process of [humans] having a meaningful exchange’ with dolphins could be started ‘within 5 years’ (4).

Intelligence in other animalsAs it has been established in the previous sections, we seriously underestimate the brain power of the animals with even the most advanced brains. It may come as some surprise that more commonplace animals also have highly developed brains; the evolutionary benefit of intelligence itself is to increase adaptability, simultaneously boosting chances of survival should a change in environment occur (4) (9). My survey asked students to rank different factors in accordance to how important they are to the overall intelligence of a species; although the average ratings are very close, not allowing me to create a clear ranking, the trait of ‘having great learning and understanding’ had the highest number of votes for the most important position.

A series of studies by the Vermont and St Andrews Universities in 2007 claimed that ravens ‘use logic to solve problems and some of their abilities even [surpasses] those of the great apes’. The ravens succeeded in using string, something they had never come into contact with before, to get access to food. Whereas most animals ‘have to be taught’ to solve problems in this way, the ravens showed creativity and were able to ‘perform this complex series of actions straightaway’. In the wild they have been known to imitate wolf calls in order to attract wolves to tear up large carcasses that the ravens are incapable of getting into (30). In a particularly memorable David Attenborough documentary Japanese crows were recorded leaving nuts on a zebra crossing (even learning to wait for the red light) in order for them to be broken by the oncoming traffic (25). This may have been edited to serve more for entertainment value than science, but the behavior of crows has been seen to be intelligent throughout the world, including learning to use a vending machine by inserting a coin (31). If this is the case, the ‘great learning and understanding’ of the crows declares them as a highly intelligent species.

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As Nick Lane theorized in ‘Life Ascending’, even a bee may have a simple ‘pleasure system’ in its simple brain that fires when it collects nectar. We currently understand brains scientifically in terms of electrical and hormonal impulses effecting mood and sensation, but our emotions are still considered ‘above’ scientific scrutiny. The majority of those who did my questionnaire

believed that science cannot explain emotions.

What are the implications?The problem with us crowning ourselves the most intelligent species on the planet is that it has made us ruthless. We would not have arrived at the point we are at today had we not driven many other primate species, such as the Neanderthals and pygmy hominids which were also capable of vocal language to extinction in our early development (3). Sadly their intelligence will never be known, a valuable insight into the significance of our own intelligence.

Our attitude of superiority is currently having a dire impact on all the other species on the planet. We are currently going through what has been termed the Anthropocene Mass Extinction, described by some the worst extinction since the KT-boundary that wiped out the dinosaurs and half of life on Earth (15). Coinciding with the spread of modern humans worldwide from Africa around 50,000 years ago to about 5,000 years ago, half of the world’s large mammals became extinct, including all Australian megafauna and whole other species of humans (some biologists suggest we even ate them). To put this into perspective, the rich ecosystem of large mammals in Africa had equivalents in Australia and the Americas. Australia was inhabited by a six meter long snake, a giant wombat, an enormous predatory lizard 7 meters long, flightless birds twice the size of ostriches and a turtle as big as a car. Lions, cheetahs, mammoths, mastodons and several species of giant ground sloths once roamed the grasslands of North America. Currently all other great ape species are either endangered or critically endangered, and all except us are declining in number. Whaling, in just a few hundred years, reduced Southern right whale populations from hundreds of millions to just 25 breeding

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Figure 4

females in 1925 (15). Habitat destruction is not only driving thousands of species to potential extinction but is also affecting the planet’s huge ‘Gaia’ system – in accordance to James Lovelock’s theory – and will eventually lead to a disastrous effect on our own living conditions (15).

Consideration of animal intelligence is also important for saving lives – roughly 300 people are killed yearly by elephants (24) that are thought to be suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. Like a human being, the elephant will only behave in this way if it has been through serious emotional trauma – ideally if the complexity of an elephant’s mind is fully understood harming them in the first place should be avoided, and those already disturbed could undergo a form of therapy.

Joshua Klein also suggested that intelligent animals could be taught to assist with the running of society, and ‘equilibrium’ could be created with them instead of the typical extermination of pest animals. He suggested that crows, for example, could be trained to ‘pick up garbage after stadium events’ or ‘find expensive components from discarded electronics’ (31). The same could be applied to other adaptable pest species such as rats and foxes, and maybe even larger species such as elephants.

Many animals are also used for testing drugs and chemical products, as it is considered more ‘ethical’ than doing so on humans – even though they will have no idea of the purpose of their suffering. Surely if we can fully realise that animals are also conscious and thinking, they will become more relatable, and more effort will be made to reduce needless death and suffering (32).

ConclusionAt this point in time, humans cannot know for sure if other animals are conscious, if a bee has emotions, or if a lizard contemplates its life purpose. It is one of the few frontiers that science is still to fully grasp, and as a result I believe it is best to view it with an open mind and try to treat the animal kingdom with respect so it is available to be studied once science has caught up with the phenomenon.

The majority of neuron growth occurs after birth, when the connections are reinforced from experience. If our evolutionary development was completed hundreds of thousands of years ago, it can be concluded our deviation from the natural world into our own ordered society is the primary explanation for, and result of, our intelligence. Therefore, if a dolphin or chimpanzee were to be put into a similar educationally enriching environment, couldn’t the same transcendence occur in them? The intelligence of species should not be regarded as black and white, the majority of species have some form of perception and so most species should be considered as having their own rights and inclinations.

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