探花直播 of Cambridge - Martin Vestergaard

Developmental dyslexia essential to human adaptive success, study argues

cg605 — Thu, 23 Jun 2022 23:00:00 +0000

Cambridge researchers studying cognition, behaviour and the brain have concluded that people with dyslexia are specialised to explore the unknown. This is likely to play a fundamental role in human adaptation to changing environments.

They think this 鈥榚xplorative bias鈥� has an evolutionary basis and plays a crucial role in our survival.

Based on these findings 鈭� which were apparent across multiple domains from visual processing to memory and at all levels of analysis 鈭� the researchers argue that we need to change our perspective of dyslexia as a neurological disorder.

探花直播findings, reported today in the journal Frontiers in Psychology, have implications both at the individual and societal level, says lead author Dr Helen Taylor, an affiliated Scholar at the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research at the 探花直播 of Cambridge and a Research Associate at the 探花直播 of Strathclyde.

鈥� 探花直播deficit-centred view of dyslexia isn鈥檛 telling the whole story,鈥� said Taylor. 鈥淭his research proposes a new framework to help us better understand the cognitive strengths of people with dyslexia.鈥�

She added: 鈥淲e believe that the areas of difficulty experienced by people with dyslexia result from a cognitive trade-off between exploration of new information and exploitation of existing knowledge, with the upside being an explorative bias that could explain enhanced abilities observed in certain realms like discovery, invention and creativity.鈥�

This is the first-time a cross-disciplinary approach using an evolutionary perspective has been applied in the analysis of studies on dyslexia.

鈥淪chools, academic institutes and workplaces are not designed to make the most of explorative learning. But we urgently need to start nurturing this way of thinking to allow humanity to continue to adapt and solve key challenges,鈥� said Taylor.

Dyslexia is found in up to 20% of the general population, irrespective of country, culture and world region. It is defined by the World Federation of Neurology as 'a disorder in children who, despite conventional classroom experience, fail to attain the language skills of reading, writing and spelling commensurate with their intellectual abilities'.

探花直播new findings are explained in the context of 鈥楥omplementary Cognition鈥�, a theory proposing that our ancestors evolved to specialise in different, but complementary, ways of thinking, which enhances human鈥檚 ability to adapt through collaboration.

These cognitive specialisations are rooted in a well-known trade-off between exploration of new information and exploitation of existing knowledge. For example, if you eat all the food you have, you risk starvation when it鈥檚 all gone. But if you spend all your time exploring for food, you鈥檙e wasting energy you don鈥檛 need to waste. As in any complex system, we must ensure we balance our need to exploit known resources and explore new resources to survive.

鈥淪triking the balance between exploring for new opportunities and exploiting the benefits of a particular choice is key to adaptation and survival and underpins many of the decisions we make in our daily lives,鈥� said Taylor.

Exploration encompasses activities that involve searching the unknown such as experimentation, discovery and innovation. In contrast, exploitation is concerned with using what's already known including refinement, efficiency and selection.

鈥淐onsidering this trade-off, an explorative specialisation in people with dyslexia could help explain why they have difficulties with tasks related to exploitation, such as reading and writing.

鈥淚t could also explain why people with dyslexia appear to gravitate towards certain professions that require exploration-related abilities, such as arts, architecture, engineering, and entrepreneurship.鈥�

探花直播researchers found that their findings aligned with evidence from several other fields of research. For example, an explorative bias in such a large proportion of the population indicates that our species must have evolved during a period of high uncertainty and change. This concurs with findings in the field of paleoarchaeology, revealing that human evolution was shaped over hundreds of thousands of years by dramatic climatic and environmental instability.

探花直播researchers highlight that collaboration between individuals with different abilities could help explain the exceptional capacity of our species to adapt.

探花直播findings are published today in the journal, Frontiers in Psychology.

探花直播research was funded by the Hunter Centre for Entrepreneurship, 探花直播 of Strathclyde.

In more depth

Taylor, H and Vestergaard MD: 'Developmental Dyslexia: Disorder or Specialization in Exploration?'聽Frontiers in Psychology (June 2022). DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.889245

Find out more about聽Dr. Helen Taylor (Originator of 探花直播Evolution of Complementary Cognition) @DrHelenTaylorCC:

Researchers say people with Developmental Dyslexia have specific strengths relating to exploring the unknown that have contributed to the successful adaptation and survival of our species.

鈥� 探花直播deficit-centred view of dyslexia isn鈥檛 telling the whole story. This research proposes a new framework to help us better understand the cognitive strengths of people with dyslexia.鈥�

Dr Helen Taylor

Catherine Falls Commercial / Moment via Getty Images

Young boy steadily makes his way through a dense forest of trees and cow parsley. He stands out in the green in his bright red jumper.

探花直播text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright 漏探花直播 of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified.聽 All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways 鈥� 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

Licence type:

Public Domain

鈥楬appy ending effect鈥� can bias future decisions, say scientists

jg533 — Mon, 19 Oct 2020 17:00:27 +0000

Humans are hard-wired to prefer experiences that end well, and the influence of previous experience declines the longer ago it happened. This means we can鈥檛 always trust that choices we make based on previous experience will serve our best interests in the future.聽

New research, published today in the Journal of Neuroscience, has revealed that two different parts of the brain are activated, and compete with each other, when we make decisions based on past experience. They can cause us to overvalue experiences that end well despite starting badly, and undervalue experiences that end badly despite starting well - even if both are equally valuable overall.

鈥淲hen you鈥檙e deciding where to go for dinner, for example, you think about where you鈥檝e had a good meal in the past. But your memory of whether that meal was good isn鈥檛 always reliable - our brain values the final few moments of the experience more highly than the rest of it,鈥� said Dr Martin Vestergaard, a researcher in the 探花直播 of Cambridge鈥檚 Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience, who led the study.

鈥淚f we can鈥檛 control our in-built attraction to happy endings, then we can鈥檛 trust our choices to serve our best interests.鈥�

探花直播part of the brain called the amygdala works out the 鈥榦bjective value鈥� of an experience - the overall tastiness of a three-course meal, for example. Meanwhile a brain region called the anterior insula was shown to 鈥榤ark down鈥� our valuation of an experience if it gets gradually worse over time.

探花直播further back in time an experience was, even if still quite recent, the less weight it carries in making the next decision. 探花直播researchers call it the 鈥榟appy ending effect鈥�: we tend to make decisions based on previous experiences that ended well, irrespective of how good the experiences were overall.聽

In the study, twenty-seven healthy male volunteers were asked to choose which of two pots of coins, viewed on-screen one at a time, had the greatest total value. They watched as coins of varying sizes - representing their value 鈥� fell from the pots in quick succession, while a brain scanner revealed what was happening in their brain using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). 探花直播task was repeated several times with different sequences of coins.

探花直播volunteers systematically chose the wrong pot when the coins decreased in size towards the end of the sequence. This reveals that the brain was imposing a penalty on the whole sequence, irrespective of its total value, when the ending was not good. 探花直播effect varied from person to person, but only a few were able to ignore it entirely and make a completely rational decision.

探花直播results verify theoretical models of decision-making, and challenge the popular belief that sub-optimal decision-making is routed in the amygdala - the primitive part of our brain - whereas more astute reasoning happens in the more evolved part. They show that our evaluation of an extended experience is encoded robustly in the amygdala.

探花直播attraction to the final moments of an experience is a fundamental mechanism in the human brain and important to be aware of, say the researchers. While there are clear advantages to paying attention to whether things are on an upward or downward trajectory, our judgements can fail us when we try to evaluate an overall experience afterwards.

While bad decision-making in the context of eating out might not be disastrous, this inaccurate valuation in summarising past events could lead to bad choices when using the information to make decisions for the longer-term 鈥� for example, deciding which politician to vote for.

鈥淥ur attraction to the quality of the final moment of an experience is exploited by politicians seeking re-election; they will always try to appear strong and successful towards the end of their time in office,鈥� said Vestergaard. 鈥淚f you fall for this trick, and disregard historical incompetence and failure, then you might end up re-electing an unfit politician.

鈥淪ometimes it鈥檚 worth taking the time to stop and think. Taking a more analytical approach to complement your intuitive judgement can help ensure you鈥檙e making a rational decision.鈥澛�

This research was funded by Wellcome.聽

Reference
Vestergaard & Schultz: 鈥�Retrospective valuation of experienced outcome encoded in distinct reward representations in the anterior insula and amygdala.鈥� Journal of Neuroscience, October 2020. DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2130-19.2020.

Study reveals brain mechanisms underlying irrational decision-making

鈥淚f we can鈥檛 control our in-built attraction to happy endings, then we can鈥檛 trust our choices to serve our best interests.鈥�

Martin Vestergaard

Peter Conlan on Unsplash

Yes

探花直播price of a happy ending can be bad decision-making, say researchers

fpjl2 — Wed, 10 Jun 2015 13:09:51 +0000

New research using high-speed gambling experiments shows that, for most of us, the last experience we鈥檝e had can be the defining one when it comes to taking a decision, coming at the expense of other experiences we鈥檝e accumulated further back in time.

探花直播study, published today in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, supports the idea that the 鈥榖anker鈥檚 fallacy鈥� - focusing on immediate growth at the expense of longer-term stability that would produce better results - is intuitive in the way many of us make quick decisions.

People's natural inclination towards a 鈥榟appy ending鈥� means that we often ascribe greater value to experiences than they are worth, say researchers. We end up overvaluing experiences with a final uptick over those that taper at the last minute, despite being of equal or even lesser overall value, and making our next moves on that basis.聽聽

Writing in the journal, they use the analogy of a three-course dinner: it has mediocre starter, a fine main, and an excellent dessert. This will be viewed much more favourably - and have much more weight in any future decision - than the inverse: an excellent starter and ending with a mediocre dessert, despite the fact that overall both experiences share equal value.聽聽聽

Researchers say that the computational demand to try and factor in all experiences equally would be vast, so our brain constantly updates its internal 鈥榣ogbook鈥� as we go, with each new experience being condensed and then ranked against the previous few for context. Then, a new experience only has to be judged against the running total.

However, a 鈥榯emporal markdown鈥� comes into play, meaning that the further back an experience, even if still quite recent, the less weight it carries in the next decision despite its relevant value; the most immediate experiences carry much more weight in decision-making than they should - meaning a recent 鈥榟appy ending鈥� has a hugely disproportionate influence, say researchers.聽聽

They say that a wealth of information and experience 鈥渓eaks鈥� as a result of this cognitive mechanism, leading to false and delusional beliefs that cause wrong-headed and often short-term decision-making despite historical experience that should convince us of the contrary.

Yet a small number of those tested (nine of the 41 participants) were able to maintain an almost perfect capacity to recall previous experience accurately, without the markdown of past experiences, and make solid long-term decisions as a result - almost as if they were 鈥渓ooking down on time鈥� said lead author Dr Martin Vestergaard.

鈥淢ost people we tested fall foul of the 鈥榖anker鈥檚 fallacy鈥�, and make poor short-term decisions as a result. This may be because they struggle to access historical experience, or give it the correct value, but we also think they become overly impressed with the moment to moment fluctuation of experiences,鈥� said Vestergaard, from Cambridge 探花直播鈥檚 Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience.

鈥淲hile the majority of participants made decisions based only on very or most recent events, a minority were able to maintain a seemingly perfect ability - at least within the parameters of the experiment - to see time on an equal footing, unconstrained by the myopia inherent in the decision-making of most,鈥� he said.

鈥� 探花直播next stages of our research will be to use imaging techniques to look at whether this ability is linked to certain parts of the brain, or perhaps social conditioning such as age and education.鈥�

Vestergaard did question age and occupation for the initial study, and found no correlation between those who are older, or who have a more or less technical occupation, with this panoptical ability to flatten time, but says the current sample size is too small to draw conclusions.

探花直播experiment involved participants trying to accumulate money by gambling between two sets of gold coins of varying sizes at high reactions times so participants were forced to go on memory and instinct.

Research using gambling techniques shows that even very recent experiences carry a 鈥榯emporal markdown鈥� so that those more immediate carry disproportionate weight in decision-making, meaning that a 鈥榟appy ending鈥� can wildly skew what we think we should do next over what experience would tell us.

A minority were able to maintain a seemingly perfect ability - at least within the parameters of the experiment - to see time on an equal footing

Martin Vestergaard

Mawoo86

thinking

探花直播text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. For image use please see separate credits above.

Yes

Licence type:

Attribution-Noncommerical