Academy holds its first symposium on animal minds

May 30, 2007

The University of New England's Professor Lesley Rogers, a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science (FAA), has convened and chaired the first symposium on animal cognition ever held at the Academy.

Professor Rogers brought together some of the world's leading authorities on higher cognition in animals for the 2007 Annual Symposium at the Academy in Canberra, held earlier this month. They travelled from universities in Italy, the UK and New Zealand – as well as from several Australian universities – to discuss evidence of complex "mental" processes in bees, birds, apes, and other animals.

Lesley Rogers (pictured here) is Professor of Neuroscience and Animal Behaviour at UNE. Her ground-breaking research has been at the forefront of a resurgence of interest, over the past 20 years, in (as she says) "explaining the complex behaviour of animals as a function of complex cognition, rather than explaining it away with vague terms such as 'instinct'". Sir Patrick Bateson, Emeritus Professor of Ethology at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS), in delivering the keynote Rutherford Memorial Lecture as an opening to the symposium, discussed this confusion surrounding the term "instinct".

Professor Mandyam Srinivasan, FAA, FRS, from the Queensland Brain Institute at the University of Queensland, reported on research with bees that has demonstrated their ability to count landmarks in finding their way back to a food source, and to acquire abstract concepts such as "sameness" and "difference".

Among talks focusing largely on birds, Professor Giorgio Vallortigara from the University of Trieste in Italy (and an Adjunct Professor at UNE) discussed evidence that complex cognition in young chicks is, in some respects, on a level that human infants do not reach until they are four months old. Professor Nicola Clayton from the University of Cambridge described experiments indicating that some birds, in their food-storing activities, can actually plan for the future. Professor Gisela Kaplan from UNE, using the example of alarm calls and mimicry in Australian magpies, showed that vocal communication in birds may involve complex cognition. Talks by Professor Russell Gray from the University of Auckland, NZ, and Dr Nathan Emery from the University of Cambridge dealt with the ability of some birds to make and use tools. Cognition in primates was also discussed.

Professor Rogers explained that the advanced cognitive abilities of birds presented a challenge to the view that cognitive ability evolved with increasing complexity only along the mammalian line – to primates and eventually humans. "Birds with their very different brains can perform some of the most complex tasks – including tool manufacture and use," she said.

Immediately after the symposium, the participants travelled to Moss Vale, NSW for the inaugural workshop – convened and chaired by Professor Rogers – of the Forum for European-Australian Science and Technology Cooperation (FEAST), an organisation established by the Australian Government and the European Union to highlight, promote and facilitate research collaboration between their respective communities.

In the four-day workshop on higher cognition in animals they were joined by Professor Allan Snyder, FAA, FRS, from the University of Sydney, Director of the Centre for the Mind. Professor Snyder added a new dimension to their discussions by his insights into the minds of autistic "savants" – minds (he said) "with privileged access to lower-level sensory information before it is packaged into holistic pictures and labels". He reported on experiments in which inhibition of "normal" human subjects' left cerebral hemisphere enabled them to experience the world in this "savant-like" way.

Professor Rogers said Professor Snyder's work had important implications for her own research – and that of Professor Vallortigara – demonstrating specialisation by the right or left cerebral hemisphere in the control of behaviour patterns in a range of vertebrate species. She added that she and Professor Vallortigara – in the spirit of FEAST, and inspired by the work of Professor Srinivasan – were now planning to extend their collaborative work into the realm of the invertebrates by investigating brain lateralisation in the responses of bees to odours. She noted that several other collaborative projects had arisen from the FEAST workshop.

THE PHOTOGRAPH of Professor Lesley Rogers displayed here expands to include Professor Giorgio Vallortigara and Professor Gisela Kaplan. It was taken during a visit to UNE by Professor Vallortigara before the Australian Academy of Science symposium.

Posted by Jim Scanlan at May 30, 2007 06:03 PM