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“Timing bottleneck”(Sequence Bottleneck) is a concept that has emerged in recent years to explain the evolutionary uniqueness of human language and advanced cognitive abilities. For example, in visual tracking tasks, animals have difficulty focusing on multiple dynamic targets simultaneously[1]but humans can do it; the visual tracking task is a timing bottleneck for animals that cannot complete it. For example, parrots can imitate human speech and marine mammals can communicate through sounds, butWhy couldn’t they develop a human-like language or culture? Although monkeys and humans share a common ancestor, why can’t today’s monkeys evolve into humans?
▷Figure 1. Dialogue between blue whale and tiger shark. Illustrated by: JoAnna Wendel
There is a view that non-human species have difficulty completing complex temporal discrimination tasks even with extensive training, while humans can excel at these tasks with only minimal practice, which mayBenefit from humans’ unique ability to encode and decode temporal information. Recently, Johan Lind from Linköping University in Sweden and Anna Jon-And from Stockholm University published a paper exploring the concept of timing bottlenecks, combining language evolution, neural mechanisms, advanced cognition and animal intelligence. the uniqueness of knowledge and the limits of animal intelligence[2]. They studied the cognitive differences between humans and other species (especially in temporal memory and discrimination ability) and found that the human brain’s superior ability to encode and process temporal information is the cognitive basis for human beings’ uniqueness.
▷Lind J, Jon-And A. A sequence bottleneck for animal intelligence and language?. Trends Cogn Sci. Published online November 7, 2024. doi:10.1016/j.tics.2024.10.009
01 Timing bottleneck and biological evolution
Studies of primates, birds, and mammals have found significant differences in their performance in temporal learning. Some birds (such as parrots) can imitate complex sounds, but experimental quantitative measurements have found thatThey lack the ability to convert sounds into grammaticalized language; Although dolphins can convey information through sound patterns, these signals lack grammatical structure; orangutans and chimpanzees can express needs through gestures and sounds, but it is difficult to combine complex information.
▷Figure 2. Dolphin’s attention bottleneck and orangutan’s timing bottleneck. Source:[2]
The emergence of language and advanced intelligence in primates was accidental. Through language, we can exchange ideas, record history, share experiences, and create complex cultures. However,Why did biological evolution over hundreds of millions of years(evolution)Only humans have developed complex language abilities? Why other species have difficulty breaking through cognitive boundaries(timing bottleneck)?
From the perspective of neural mechanisms, human neural networks have the following significant differences from animals.
▪ Neuronal density:The neuronal density of the human cerebral cortex is significantly higher than that of other primates.
▪ Clear functional divisions:Language-related Broca’s and Wernicke’s areas are highly developed in the brain[1].
▪ Synaptic plasticity:The synapses of the human brain have higher plasticity, which is conducive to learning and memorizing complex information.
Of course, these unique advantages come with corresponding costs. The first is energy consumption. The human brain accounts for 20% of the body’s total energy consumption, which is much higher than that of other species. The second is that human childhood development takes a long time (neotenish persistence), which provides sufficient time for the development of language and cognitive abilities.
The ability to process high-level sequences relies on the collaborative work of the prefrontal cortex and other brain areas in the brain. The evolution of this structure requires a large amount of energy. Due to the limitation of species survival priority, in the process of biological evolution, organisms need to give priority to ensuring basic survival needs (foraging, reproduction, etc.), andThis survival mechanism may have suppressed the emergence or evolution of energy-intensive cognitive abilities. In turn, complex temporal processing requires memory, attention, and predictive abilities,The basis for the implementation of these advanced functions is a nervous system with a certain complexity. Only higher animals have evolved complex nervous systems, and the nervous system will also limit the evolution of complex timing capabilities.
Therefore, the ability to process complex time sequences has been subject to multiple constraints such as neural mechanisms and energy metabolism during the evolution process. Only a very few species can break through this bottleneck.
andThe basis of language and advanced cognitive functions is the ability to process complex temporal sequences. Language sequence can be divided into two categories: linear sequence, where words are arranged in a certain order to form sentences; hierarchical sequence, where the sentence structure contains nested relationships, such as the use of main clauses and modifying components, the grammatical structure of the sentence, and higher-level narrative expressions etc. The ability to handle complex timing is at the heart of the language.
▷Figure 3. Language timing. Source: Greco, Matteo & Cometa, Andrea & Artoni, Fiorenzo & Frank, Robert & Moro, Andrea. (2023). False perspectives on human language: why statistics needs linguistics. 10.48550/arXiv.2302.08822.
In addition to timing bottlenecks,memory trace(Memory Traces) are also often regarded as an important mechanism affecting animal intelligence. Memory traces are information stored in the nervous system after an individual experiences an event. It will affect an individual’s behavior and learning ability.[3].
The interaction between temporal bottlenecks and memory traces is particularly significant in animal intelligence. on the one hand,Timing bottlenecks may affect memory trace formation and retrieval. For example, when animals process too much information in a short period of time, the accuracy of memory traces decreases. On the other hand, the existence of memory traces can help alleviate the impact of timing bottlenecks. For example, in foraging tasks, memory traces enable animals to rely less on real-time information.
The expression of intelligence in animals is different from that in humans. Despite their limitations in temporal processing, animals exhibit unique abilities in their respective domains. For example, crows can use tools to solve complex problems; in terms of social learning, orangutans and dolphins can learn behaviors by observing their peers; in terms of spatial memory, some birds can remember hundreds of food hiding locations.These evolutions of animal intelligence are often closely related to their survival needs.Foraging strategies and related complex behaviors require certain cognitive abilities; predicting predator behavior in order to avoid predation improves the survival rate of animals.
andSocial interaction and complex group structures further promote the evolution of social behavior.Scientists use machine learning technology to analyze animal sound data, identify different acoustic patterns through algorithms, and try to translate the “language” of species such as whales and birds. Research shows thatMost animals can only process simple linear sequences and cannot understand more complex sequences. The main reason behind this is the limitations of short-term memory (i.e. “memory traces”)——The working memory capacity of animals is usually small, making it difficult to store multi-level information.
▷Figure 4. Animal memory traces. Source:[2]
Compared with humans, animals have insufficient learning ability and cannot quickly adapt to changing environments. Animals lack a language system and cannot establish systematic and abstract expressions. Correspondingly, animals are unable to accumulate and spread knowledge within a group.
02 Language is the highest level timing bottleneck
Human language is unique in its compositional, symbolic, and temporal forms. Going from a world without language to a world with language is very challenging. The timing bottleneck may partially explain why other animals have not evolved language. Of course, the millions of years of human evolution cannot be reproduced, and it may not be applicable to other animals. But among them,Decoding complex temporal information was necessary for the emergence and refinement of language, which greatly contributed to the development of human intelligence and teamwork capabilities.
Language is not only a communication tool but also a core component of human cognition. Language enables the transfer of experience and skills from generation to generation, laying the foundation for cultural and technological progress.Language provides a system of symbols to express complex abstract concepts and logical relationships.Language and intelligence have a co-evolutionary relationship. This co-evolution further consolidates humans’ advantages in temporal processing capabilities. Higher cognitive abilities make language structures more complex and expression abilities more diverse.
The developed neural network in the human brain supports the development of language, and in turn, the use of language also promotes brain development.The prefrontal cortex and related neural circuits of the human brain play a key role in temporal processing and are the core areas of temporal processing and complex cognition.The prefrontal cortex is responsible for planning, decision-making and inhibiting impulsive behavior, providing the basis for complex thinking. The synergy of this area with the hippocampus allows humans to remember and process long sentences and complex structures. In contrast, animals have small brains and relatively simple structures, and their neural circuits are less capable of processing the time dimension. This difference in neural mechanisms is the fundamental reason why language and intellectual abilities exist uniquely in humans.
▷Figure 5. Bidirectional connections between the auditory cortex and frontal lobes in monkeys and humans. Source: Poliva O. From where to what: a neuroanatomically based evolutionary model of the emergence of speech in humans. F1000Res. 2015;4:67. Published 2015 Mar 13. doi:10.12688/f1000research.6175.3
Animal experimental studies related to language evolution are usually analyzed from the perspective of symbolic rules or grammar and complex sequence discrimination.The concept of “temporal bottleneck” provides a new perspective on the origin of language, emphasizing the evolutionary bottleneck in animals’ temporal processing capabilities.John Lind pointed out that today’s research results in the field of cognition are constantly increasing, and the number of papers published annually is rising year by year, but this also makes it increasingly difficult to integrate different perspectives. Researchers tend to focus on their own subdivisions, resulting in limited cross-field communication and interaction. In contrast, animals’ memory systems have specific limitations. This difference provides important clues for us to understand the differences in behavioral patterns, language evolution, and learning models between humans and animals.
03 How humans achieve “evolutionary leap”
Human language and intelligence are unique, although animals exhibit some human-like characteristics in some respects. For example, the social game behavior of chimpanzees and the use of tools by orangutans reflect cooperation and competition; dolphins have a complex “grammar” system for communication and cooperation; birds have the ability to learn and imitate, such as zebra finches that can quickly Learn new songs. but,These characteristics are less cumulative, abstract, and scalable than human performance.
▷Why does “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” only happen in science fiction movies? Source: Gooffon
There are a series of key transitions in human evolution that distinguish humans from other primates. These transitions include: the use of complex tools such as fire, the manufacture and use of stone tools, human group living and technological inheritance, the inheritance of tribal culture, etc.Language is not only a communication tool in human evolution, but also the basis for abstract thinking and social collaboration.Human culture acquires progressive sophistication and sophistication through generations, aspects that animals cannot match.
The emergence of language and changes in brain structure may have reinforced each other, while the agricultural revolution that began 10,000 years ago accelerated genome adaptation to dietary changes (such as the evolution of lactose tolerance genes). This co-evolution mechanism is the core driving force that distinguishes humans from other animals. It can be said thatThe dual effects of genes and culture have shaped human evolution.
Throughout the 200,000-year history of humankind (Homo Sapiens), its uniqueness comes from the combination of language, culture and social structure, rather than simple continuation.Is human cognitive and behavioral capabilities a quantitative evolution (“continuity hypothesis”), or a series of qualitative leaps (“disruption hypothesis”)? Is culture as important as biological evolution? Do existing studies underestimate the intelligence and behavioral complexity of animals?At least two Swedish scholars have tried to balance this bias by acknowledging that animals have specific cognitive abilities while exploring the uniqueness of human intelligence.
04 The prophetic vision of science fiction works
Although some novels do not explicitly mention timing bottlenecks, their core ideas are similar to timing bottlenecks, such as the complexity of language and the evolution of human intelligence, the limits of human cognitive ability, and the comparison between human intelligence and machine intelligence.
For example, the “Sophon Project” in “The Three-Body Problem” – the artificial intelligence detector “Sophon” made using ultrafine particles, can monitor scientific research on the earth in real time and prevent human technological progress by interfering with particle experiments. This scheme essentially exploits the limitations of human information processing:By manipulating the flow of key information, sophons create “bottlenecks” in scientific exploration, making it impossible for humans to break through specific cognitive and technological limitations.This is similar to the concept of “timing bottleneck”. Whether it is the cognitive limitations of animals in the natural environment or the technological stagnation of humans under high-dimensional interference, they all reflect the core impact of information processing capabilities on the development of intelligence.
▷“The Three-Body Problem” poster. Source: TV series of the same name
Other works, such as Charles Strauss’ “Embassytown”, Neal Stephenson’s “Snow Crash”, Arthur C. Clarke’s “Childhood’s End”, Science fiction novels such as “The Invention of Morel” by Adolfo Casares involve cutting-edge scientific issues such as language, intelligence and cognition. In the future literary world, this theme may trigger richer imagination and discussion.
05 Postscript: The endless frontier
Humans have gone through a critical evolutionary transition and become a unique species on earth. In addition to the unique history of biological evolution, culture, language and social organization also played a large role. There are still many unsolved mysteries in this field, such as the neural basis of timing bottlenecks, the boundaries of animal intelligence, and the nature of human language. Current neuroimaging and gene editing technologies can help further explore the neural and genetic mechanisms of timing bottlenecks.
At present, cognitive science, neuroscience and evolutionary biology have achieved many important results in the research of animal intelligence and language.These studies not only reveal whether animals have language ability and the similarities and differences with human cognition, but also help to study the evolutionary mechanism of human intelligence.Analyzing the concept of “timing bottleneck” is also of far-reaching significance for artificial intelligence design. For example, natural language processing technology may be improved by simulating the temporal processing mechanism of the human brain. Through multidisciplinary collaborative research, humans may be able to more comprehensively decode the mysteries of language, intelligence and life.
References
- 1. Miller EK, Cohen JD. An integrative theory of prefrontal cortex function. Annu Rev Neurosci. 2001;24:167-202. doi:10.1146/annurev.neuro.24.1.167
- 2. Lind J, Jon-And A. A sequence bottleneck for animal intelligence and language?. Trends Cogn Sci. Published online November 7, 2024. doi:10.1016/j.tics.2024.10.009
- 3. Tulving E. Episodic memory: from mind to brain. Annu Rev Psychol. 2002;53:1-25. doi:10.1146/annurev.psych.53.100901.135114
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