A new article published by PLoS Biology explores this question suggested by Temple Grandin.

Vallortigara G, Snyder A, Kaplan G, Bateson P, Clayton NS, et al. (2008) Are Animals Autistic Savants. PLoS Biol 6(2): e42 doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.0060042

Similarities in behaviour between autistic savants and animals have been suggested, most notably by Temple Grandin [1] in her book Animals in Translation 2005, and this theory seems to have gained some consensus among other neuroscientists who are not specialists in animal cognition. Here we aim to discuss two specific parallels between the behavioural characteristics of animals and those of autistic savants that have been raised in relation to Grandin’s book. Autistic savants show extraordinary skills, particularly in music, mathematics, and drawing. Do animals sometimes show forms of extreme (though, of course, different) cognitive skills confined to particular domains that resemble those shown by autistic savants? We argue that the extraordinary cognitive feats shown by some animal species can be better understood as adaptive specialisations that bear little, if any, relationship to the unusual skills shown by savants. It has also been argued that autistic savants “think in detail”, and that this is the key to their extraordinary skills. Do animals have privileged access to lower level sensory information before it is packaged into concepts, as has been argued for autistic humans, or do they process sensory inputs according to rules that pre-empt or filter what is perceived even at the lowest levels of sensory processing? We argue that animals, like nonautistic humans, process sensory information according to rules, and that this manner of processing is a specialised feature of the left hemisphere of the brain in both humans and nonhuman animals. Hence, we disagree with the claim that animals are similar to autistic savants. However, we discuss the possibility that manipulations that suppress activity of the left hemisphere and enhance control by the right hemisphere shift attention to the details of individual stimuli, as opposed to categories and higher-level concepts, and can thereby make performance more savant-like in both humans and animals. (Editors note: See Box 1 for Grandin’s response.)

Sensory exploitation as an evolutionary origin to nuptial food gifts in insects

Author: Scott K. Sakaluk 

Source: PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF LONDON SERIES B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES    Volume: 267    Issue: 1441    Pages:339-343    Published: 2000

Abstract: Nuptial food gifts given by males to females at mating are widespread in insects, but their evolutionary origin remains obscure. Such gifts may arise as a form of sensory trap that exploits the normal gustatory responses of females, favouring the selective retention of sperm of gift-giving males. I tested this hypothesis by offering foreign food gifts, synthesized by males of one cricket species, to females of three non-gift-giving species. Females provisioned with novel food gifts were ‘fooled’ into accepting more sperm than they otherwise would in the absence of a gift. These results support the hypothesis that nuptial food gifts and post-copulatory female mating preferences coevolve through a unique form of sensory exploitation.

http://csf2008.elte.hu/

From endirectional to intentional. Updated: 2008.02.19

latticed-intentions.pdf

Welcome to the Animal Minds Blog! This blog was initially conceived as a forum to continue and expand discussions from cognitive ethology reading groups that are meeting in St. Louis and at Indiana University, Bloomington (SPACKLED). We thought a blog would be an ideal way to develop additional conversations that extend beyond these groups, with the hope of bringing diverse perspectives to one virtual table. We’re open to work from a variety of fields, including Psychology, Biology, Cognitive Science, Philosophy, Neuroscience, and everything in between (and beyond).

We would love to have as many people involved as possible, so please feel free to encourage friends/colleagues with similar interests to join in discussions. And if anyone finds relevant articles that you’d like to discuss, or if you have any of your own work you want to throw into the ring, please feel free to email the article and/or a synopsis/commentary of it to animalmindsATgmailDOTcom

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Katie and Adam