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This report provides insights into global population dynamics since the beginning of the Anthropocene, focusing on empirical data and minimizing a priori the impact of model assumptions. It explores the Relative Growth Rate concept,…
Human learning is a complex phenomenon requiring flexibility to adapt existing brain function and precision in selecting new neurophysiological activities to drive desired behavior. These two attributes -- flexibility and selection -- must…
The exterior of the mammalian brain - the cerebral cortex - has a conserved layered structure whose thickness varies little across species. However, selection pressures over evolutionary time scales have led to cortices that have a large…
Evolutionary systems must learn to generalize, often extrapolating from a limited set of selective conditions to anticipate future environmental changes. The mechanisms enabling such generalization remain poorly understood, despite their…
Artificial intelligence algorithms are capable of fantastic exploits, yet they are still grossly inefficient compared with the brain's ability to learn from few exemplars or solve problems that have not been explicitly defined. What is the…
Cognitive processes in the brain, like learning, formation of memory, recovery of memorized images, classification of objects have two features: First, there is no supervisor in the brain who controls these processes. Second there is a hugh…
The concept of fitness as a measure for a species's success in natural selection is central to the theory of evolution. We here investigate how reproduction rates which are not constant but vary in response to environmental fluctuations,…
The human electroencephalogram (EEG) of sleep undergoes profound changes with age. These changes can be conceptualized as "brain age", which can be compared to an age norm to reflect the deviation from normal aging process. Here, we develop…
Recent studies suggest that the representations learned by large language models (LLMs) are partially aligned to those of the human brain. However, whether and why this alignment score arises from a similar sequence of computations remains…
Understanding the fundamentals of human reasoning is central to the development of any system built to closely interact with humans. Cognitive science pursues the goal of modeling human-like intelligence from a theory-driven perspective…
Brain morphology is shaped by genetic and mechanical factors and is linked to biological development and diseases. Its fractal-like features, regional anisotropy, and complex curvature distributions hinder quantitative insights in medical…
When involution affects individuals, their efforts do not augment resources but merely compete for limited resources. From entrance exams to company overtime, such efforts lead to unnecessary costs, undermining group welfare. Meanwhile, the…
Eukaryote genomes contain excessively introns, inter-genic and other non-genic sequences that appear to have no vital functional role or phenotype manifestation. Their existence, a long-standing puzzle, is viewed from the principle of…
As more connectome data become available, the question of how to best analyse the structure of biological neural networks becomes increasingly pertinent. In brain networks, knowing that two areas are connected is often not sufficient, as…
Understanding how decision making changes across the lifespan is a central challenge for neuroscience, yet research on cognitive aging has remained largely disconnected from the theoretical and computational advances that now shape modern…
We study the dynamics of a population subject to selective pressures, evolving either on RNA neutral networks or in toy fitness landscapes. We discuss the spread and the neutrality of the population in the steady state. Different limits…
Understanding how the human brain represents visual concepts, and in which brain regions these representations are encoded, remains a long-standing challenge. Decades of work have advanced our understanding of visual representations, yet…
We study the evolution of a closed Friedmann brane perturbed by the Hawking radiation escaping a bulk black hole. The semi-transparent brane absorbes some of the infalling radiation, the rest being transmitted across the brane to the other…
We critically examine the evidence for the idea that encephalization quotients increase with time. We find that human-like intelligence is not a convergent feature of evolution. Implications for the search for extraterrestrial intelligence…
As our understanding of the mechanisms of brain function is enhanced, the value of insights gained from neuroscience to the development of AI algorithms deserves further consideration. Here, we draw parallels with an existing tree-based ANN…