̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge - cognition

Cambridge Festival Speaker Spotlight: Professor Paul Bays

zs332 — Tue, 11 Mar 2025 13:24:10 +0000

Paul Bays is a Professor of Computation and Cognition in the Department of Psychology at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge. He investigates the nature of the internal representations our brains construct and sustain to interact with the world and the computations performed on them to achieve behavioural goals.

Cambridge Festival Speaker Spotlight: Estherina Trachtenberg

zs332 — Mon, 24 Feb 2025 09:26:42 +0000

Estherina Trachtenberg is a Blavatnik Postdoctoral Fellow in the Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and is currently working in the lab of Prof. Duncan Astle. She studies social connectedness and its impact on health, cognition, and the underlying brain networks.

Sleight-of-hand magic trick only fools monkeys with opposable thumbs

fpjl2 — Mon, 03 Apr 2023 14:27:26 +0000

By performing a famous magic trick for three species of monkey with differing hand structures, scientists have discovered that – in order to deceive – a conjuror needs the same anatomy as their audience.

Psychologists used a sleight-of-hand trick called the French drop, in which an object appears to vanish when a spectator assumes it is taken from one hand by the hidden thumb of the other hand.

̽��ֱ��study, carried out by the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge’s Comparative Cognition Lab, found that monkeys lacking opposable thumbs did not fall for the assumption – staying wise to the whereabouts of tasty treats a magician tried to make disappear.

̽��ֱ��research suggest that sharing a biomechanical ability may be necessary for accurately anticipating the movements of those same limbs in other individuals.

This is true even when those apparently accurate predictions end in befuddlement at the hands of an illusionist. ̽��ֱ��study is published today in the journal Current Biology.

“Magicians use intricate techniques to mislead the observer into experiencing the impossible. It is a great way to study blind spots in attention and perception,” said Dr Elias Garcia-Pelegrin, who has practiced magic for a decade, and conducted the experimental work during his PhD at Cambridge.

“By investigating how species of primates experience magic, we can understand more about the evolutionary roots of cognitive shortcomings that leave us exposed to the cunning of magicians.”

“In this case, whether having the manual capability to produce an action, such as holding an item between finger and thumb, is necessary for predicting the effects of that action in others,” said Garcia-Pelegrin, recently appointed an assistant professor at the National ̽��ֱ�� of Singapore.

̽��ֱ��French drop is often the first trick any budding magician sets out to master.

A coin is displayed in one hand. ̽��ֱ��other hand reaches over and grabs it. ̽��ֱ��palm of the second hand faces inwards, with the magician’s thumb concealed behind fingers.

̽��ֱ��audience knows the thumb is lurking – ready to grip – so assumes the coin has been taken when it is no longer visible. Their attention follows the second hand, only to find it empty at 'the reveal'. ̽��ֱ��magician had secretly dropped the coin into the palm of the original hand.

Food morsels replaced coins for the monkeys, and were given as rewards – but only if the animals guessed the correct hand. Scientists predicted that monkeys with opposable thumbs would act like human audiences: assume the hidden thumb had grabbed the item, and choose the wrong hand.

They repeatedly performed the French drop on 24 monkeys. Eight capuchins were dazzled with peanuts, eight squirrel monkeys with dried mealworms, and eight marmosets with marshmallows.

Capuchins are famed for dexterity, and use stone tools to crack nuts in the wild. They can waggle each finger, and have opposable thumbs allowing 'precision grip' between thumb and forefingers.

̽��ֱ��capuchins were regularly fooled by the French drop (81% of the time). They mostly chose the empty second hand, and experienced a paucity of peanuts as a result.

Squirrel monkeys are much less dextrous than capuchins, with limited thumb rotation, but can oppose their thumbs. As such, they are still familiar with a hidden thumb interacting with fingers. However, they cannot perform a ‘precision grip’ in the same way as capuchins and humans.

Yet squirrel monkeys were routinely misled by vanishing mealworms (93% of the time). “Squirrel monkeys cannot do full precision grips, but they were still fooled. This suggests that a monkey doesn’t have to be expert in a movement in order to predict it, just roughly able to do it,” said Garcia-Pelegrin.

Marmosets do not have opposable thumbs. Their thumbs align with their fingers to make five equidistant digits, ideal for climbing thick tree trunks. Marmosets were rarely taken in by magic (just 6% of the time). They simply chose the hand in which the marshmallow was initially placed, and stuck with it.

Previous work from the Cambridge team shows that species without hands at all, in this case birds from the corvid family, namely Eurasian jays, make similar choices as marmosets when confronted with the French drop.

̽��ֱ��team also tried nullifying the tricks by actually completing the hand-to-hand transfers, instead of misdirecting with a French drop. This time, the capuchins and squirrel monkeys anticipated correctly and dined out, and the marmosets missed out.

Finally, the scientists devised their own version of the French drop, which they call the “Power drop”. It utilises a hand action that all the monkey species can perform – essentially a full fist grab. ̽��ֱ��power drop fooled all of the monkey species the vast majority of the time.

“There is increasing evidence that the same parts of the nervous system used when we perform an action are also activated when we watch that action performed by others,” said Prof Nicola Clayton FRS, senior author of the study from Cambridge’s Department of Psychology.

“This mirroring in our neural motor system might explain why the French drop worked for the capuchins and squirrel monkeys but not for marmosets.”

“It’s about the embodiment of knowledge,” added Clayton. “How one’s fingers and thumbs move helps to shape the way we think, and the assumptions we make about the world – as well as what others might see, remember and anticipate, based on their expectations.”

“Our work raises the intriguing possibility that an individual’s inherent physical capability heavily influences their perception, their memory of what they think they saw, and their ability to predict manual movements of those around them.”

Another co-author of the study, Clive Wilkins, Artist in Residence at Cambridge’s Department of Psychology, is a professional magician and Member of the Magic Circle.

Illusion involving a hidden thumb confounds capuchin and squirrel monkeys for the same reason as humans – it misdirects the expected outcomes of actions they can carry out.

This mirroring in our neural motor system might explain why the French drop worked for the capuchins and squirrel monkeys but not for marmosets

Nicola Clayton

Not all monkeys are fooled by magic.

Elias Garcia-Pelegrin

A Humboldt's squirrel monkey is fooled by a French drop as part of the experiment.

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright © ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified. All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways – as here, on our main website under its Terms and conditions, and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.

Yes

Childhood mental health problems resulting from early-life adversity drive poorer cognitive performance in adolescence, study suggests

cg605 — Wed, 08 Feb 2023 09:12:00 +0000

Early-life adversity – such as poverty, illness or family conflict – has long been linked to mental health difficulties and poorer cognitive functioning as children grow up. But how these factors interact and evolve over time has so far been unknown.

Now, a new study by researchers at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, together with colleagues in Nigeria, has revealed the interplay between early-life adversity, mental health difficulties and cognitive functioning over the course of childhood. ̽��ֱ��results, published today in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, show that childhood mental health influences the extent to which early-life adversity impacts on later cognitive functioning.

Scientists analysed data from the ongoing Millennium Cohort Study, which has assessed 13,287 children on a variety of tests at ages three, five, seven, eleven and fourteen. They selected measures of early-life adversity (which they classified as taking place before the age of three), mental health and cognitive functioning – namely, working memory and vocabulary.

̽��ֱ��team from the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge used a statistical technique designed to tease out the extent to which mental health affects the relationship between early-life adversity and cognitive functioning later in childhood.

They found that early-life adversity is associated with poorer performance on working memory and vocabulary through its impact on mental health across childhood. For example, poorer mental health across ages 3-14 resulting from early-life adversity accounted for 59% of the variance in poorer working memory performance at age 11 and explained 70% of poorer performance in vocabulary at age 14.

̽��ֱ��researchers showed that early-life adversity at age three strongly predicted poorer mental health across ages 3-14, with the association strongest at three but getting progressively weaker over time. In other words, children who experienced early-life adversity were most likely to experience mental health difficulties from age three to age fourteen, although poorer mental health was greater at age 3 than in the later years. This suggests that exposure to early-life adversity at this developmentally sensitive time has a negative long-term impact on mental health.

They also found that decreases in mental health difficulties over time were associated with improvements in working memory and vocabulary. This suggests that if behavioural and psychological difficulties can be addressed when children are young, the effects of early-life adversity on later cognition could be alleviated. This finding has important implications for clinicians, educators and parents involved in interventions.

“Our findings suggest that early-life adversity can lead to prolonged periods of poor mental health, which in turn may have lasting effects on cognitive performance, such as working memory and vocabulary,” said lead author Dr Tochukwu Nweze from the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit.

“We already know that poor mental health and cognition are associated with numerous behavioural problems which affect life quality and satisfaction. This reinforces the need for early interventions to give children the best possible life-outcomes.”

̽��ֱ��researchers say that, at a time of rising mental health challenges among teenagers and young people, made worse by contemporary risk factors such as conflicts, pandemics and climate change, educators and clinicians need to focus on building resilience in children who have experienced early-life adversity.

“In this way, we can hope to break the self-sustaining mental health difficulties faced by individuals who have experienced early-life adversity,” said Dr Nweze.

̽��ֱ��research was funded by Cambridge Trust under the Cambridge-Africa Scholarship scheme.

Tochukwu Nweze et al., Childhood mental health difficulties mediate the long-term association between early-life adversity at age 3 and poorer cognitive functioning at ages 11 and 14, Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 8 February 2023, DOI: 10.1111/jcpp.13757

Early-life adversity has long-term effects on children’s mental health, which in turn affects cognitive functioning as teenagers, say researchers. However, if mental health improves over time this outcome can be alleviated.

We can hope to break the self-sustaining mental health difficulties faced by individuals who have experienced early-life adversity.

Tochukwu Nweze

Vess Hristova / Moment via Getty Images

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright © ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified. All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways – as here, on our main website under its Terms and conditions, and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.

Yes

̽��ֱ��psychiatrist who faced a dilemma but couldn’t turn his back on his people

cg605 — Mon, 23 May 2022 13:09:49 +0000

Children in West Africa with cognitive difficulties are going undiagnosed because the tests used to assess their mental health are based on Western norms. Kwabena Kusi-Mensah is working with communities in Nigeria and Ghana to develop assessments that are culturally appropriate.

Seven hours of sleep is optimal in middle and old age, say researchers

cjb250 — Thu, 28 Apr 2022 15:00:00 +0000

Sleep plays an important role in enabling cognitive function and maintaining good psychological health. It also helps keep the brain healthy by removing waste products. As we get older, we often see alterations in our sleep patterns, including difficulty falling asleep and staying asleep, and decreased quantity and quality of sleep. It is thought that these sleep disturbances may contribute to cognitive decline and psychiatric disorders in the ageing population.

In research published today in Nature Aging, scientists from the UK and China examined data from nearly 500,000 adults aged 38-73 years from the UK Biobank. Participants were asked about their sleeping patterns, mental health and wellbeing, and took part in a series of cognitive tests. Brain imaging and genetic data were available for almost 40,000 of the study participants.

By analysing these data, the team found that both insufficient and excessive sleep duration were associated with impaired cognitive performance, such as processing speed, visual attention, memory and problem-solving skills. Seven hours of sleep per night was the optimal amount of sleep for cognitive performance, but also for good mental health, with people experiencing more symptoms of anxiety and depression and worse overall wellbeing if they reported sleeping for longer or shorter durations.

̽��ֱ��researchers say one possible reason for the association between insufficient sleep and cognitive decline may be due to the disruption of slow-wave – ‘deep’ – sleep. Disruption to this type of sleep has been shown to have a close link with memory consolidation as well as the build-up of amyloid – a key protein which, when it misfolds, can cause ‘tangles’ in the brain characteristic of some forms of dementia. Additionally, lack of sleep may hamper the brain’s ability to rid itself of toxins.

̽��ֱ��team also found a link between the amount of sleep and differences in the structure of brain regions involved in cognitive processing and memory, again with greater changes associated with greater than or less than seven hours of sleep.

Having a consistent seven hours’ sleep each night, without too much fluctuation in duration, was also important to cognitive performance and good mental health and wellbeing. Previous studies have also shown that interrupted sleep patterns are associated with increased inflammation, indicating a susceptibility to age-related diseases in older people.

Professor Jianfeng Feng from Fudan ̽��ֱ�� in China said: “While we can’t say conclusively that too little or too much sleep causes cognitive problems, our analysis looking at individuals over a longer period of time appears to support this idea. But the reasons why older people have poorer sleep appear to be complex, influenced by a combination of our genetic makeup and the structure of our brains.”

̽��ֱ��researchers say the findings suggest that insufficient or excessive sleep duration may be a risk factor for cognitive decline in ageing. This is supported by previous studies that have reported a link between sleep duration and the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease and dementia, in which cognitive decline is a hallmark symptom.

Professor Barbara Sahakian from the Department of Psychiatry at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, one of the study’s authors, said: “Getting a good night’s sleep is important at all stages of life, but particularly as we age. Finding ways to improve sleep for older people could be crucial to helping them maintain good mental health and wellbeing and avoiding cognitive decline, particularly for patients with psychiatric disorders and dementias.”

̽��ֱ��research was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China, the Shanghai Municipal Science and Technology Major Project, the Shanghai Center for Brain Science and Brain-Inspired Technology, the 111 Project, the National Natural Sciences Foundation of China and the Shanghai Rising Star Program.

Reference
Li, Y, Sahakian, BJ, et al. ̽��ֱ��brain structure and genetic mechanisms underlying the nonlinear association between sleep duration, cognition and mental health. Nature Aging; 28 Apr 2022l DOI: 10.1038/s43587-022-00210-2

Seven hours is the ideal amount of sleep for people in their middle age and upwards, with too little or too much sleep associated with poorer cognitive performance and mental health, say researchers from the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and Fudan ̽��ֱ��.

Getting a good night’s sleep is important at all stages of life, but particularly as we age

Barbara Sahakian

Pornpak Khunatorn

Insomnia or sleep changes and disorders in elderly concept

Yes

A mental health revolution

cg605 — Thu, 07 Oct 2021 14:36:07 +0000

Cambridge-led computerised cognitive assessments transform early detection and treatment of neurological and psychiatric disorders.

Psychological ‘signature’ for the extremist mind uncovered

fpjl2 — Mon, 22 Feb 2021 08:36:56 +0000

Scientists have mapped an underlying “psychological signature” for people who are predisposed to holding extreme social, political or religious attitudes – and support violence in the name of ideology.