Laboratory for Symbolic Cognitive Development

We try to uncover evolutionary precursors of human higher cognitive functions grounded onto physical morphologies and patterns of structured bodily actions, based on behavioral and neurophysiological analyses on chronic macaque monkeys, which were trained to use tools and other high-tech apparatus. By sharing these machineries among individuals, we extrapolate the mechanisms to constitute bases of communicatory functions, and eventually understand neural mechanism to form intellectual and alstristic society to comprise humanistic civilization environment. Further, we are aiming at elucidating neurobiological mechanisms, through the development of Marmoset experimental models, of evolutionary as well as developmental processes that give rise to symbolic cognitive functions subserving inference, metaphysical thoughts, etc. that characterize human intelligence.

Research Subjects

• Learning-induced expansion of primates' cerebral cortex and neural response properties
• Interactions among multiple subjectives as bases of intellectual environment
• Marmoset as a primate model to reveal neurobiological mechanisms of human intellectual evolution
• Cortical information processing of human-specific cognitive bias

Publications

1. Yoshida K, Saito N, Iriki A, Isoda M.:
   "Social error monitoring in mcaque frontal cortex."
   Nature Neuroscience, 15, 1307-1312 (2012)
2. Iriki A, Taoka M.:
   "Triadic (ecological, neural, cognitive) niche construction: a scenario of human brain evolution extrapolating tool-use and language from control of the reaching actions."
   Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences, 367, 10-23 (2012)
3. Yoshida K, Saito N, Iriki A and Isoda M.:
   "Representation of others' action by neurons in monkey medial frontal cortex."
   Current Biology, 21: 249-253 (2011).
4. Quallo MM, Price CJ, Ueno K, Asamizuya T, Cheng K, Lemon RN and Iriki A.:
   "Creating a population-averaged standard brain template for Japanese macaques (M. fuscata)."
   Neuroimage, 52: 1328-1333. (2010).
5. Ogawa A, Yamazaki Y, Ueno K, Cheng K and Iriki A.:
   "Neural correlates of species-typical illogical cognitive bias in human inference."
   Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 22: 2120-2130 (2010).
6. Quallo M, Price J, Ueno K, Asamizuya T, Cheng K, Lemon R and Iriki A.:
   "Gray and white matter changes associated with tool-use learning in macaque monkeys"
   Proceeding of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 106: 18379-18384 (2009)
7. Iriki A. and Sakura O.:
   "Neuroscience of primate intellectual evolution: natural selection and passive and intentional niche construction."
   Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences, 363: 2229-2241 (2008).
8. Corradi-Dell'acqua C, Ueno K, Ogawa A, Cheng K, Rumiati RI, and Iriki A.:
   "Effects of shifting perspective of the self: an fMRI study."
   Neuroimage. 40: 1902-1911 (2008).
9. Iriki A.:
   "The neural origins and implications of imitation, mirror neurons and tool use."
   Current Opinion in Neurobiology, 16: 660-667 (2006).
10. Maravita A. and Iriki A.:
    "Tools for the body (schema)."
    Trends in Cognitive Science, 18: 79-86 (2004).