Seeking true intelligence from the ground up: Evolutionary origins of cognition

Higher cognitive function was built from a foundation laid by the lowest goal-directed systems in the human brain. Thus, to understand higher cognitive function we must first understand the lowest level. This paper presents our initial results of a computational investigation into the origins of our cognition. We present results from four experiments that investigated the conditions under which initial cognitive abilities arose in our lineage, by comparing a representative chordate, amphioxus, to its close cousins the tunicates and Pikaia. Experiment 1 found that the chordates that would eventually lead to amphioxus and Pikaia evolved a switching mechanism for actions partially from a need to deal with sparse food environments. Experiments 2 & 3 found that predator sensing was the most beneficial adaptation for an organism to receive, followed by increased speed and switching speeds, but also surprisingly, that sensing food was in some cases detrimental. In Experiment 4 we examined the addition of a higher radius of vision and found an amplified performance from predator detection. Our findings show that cognitive adaptations are more advantageous because they enable organisms to avoid predation, eventually enabling them to become predators themselves. Future research will then examine how these basic principles led to more sophisticated cognitive-control mechanisms and learning as evolution progressed to vertebrates, mammals, primates, and ultimately to the complete human mind and brain.