Zvířata jako člověkem prioritně vnímané stimuly

• Thesis title in Czech: Zvířata jako člověkem prioritně vnímané stimuly
• Thesis title in English: Animals as prioritized stimuli in human mind
• Key words: prioritně vnímané stimuly, zvířata, pozornost, amygdala
• English key words: stimuli perceived with priority, animals, attention, amygdala
• Academic year of topic announcement: 2015/2016
• Thesis type: Bachelor's thesis
• Thesis language: čeština
• Department: Department of Zoology (31-170)
• Supervisor: RNDr. Eva Landová, Ph.D.
• Author: hidden - assigned by the advisor
• Date of registration: 13.11.2015
• Date of assignment: 15.01.2016
• Date of electronic submission: 19.08.2016
• Date of proceeded defence: 08.09.2016
• Opponents: Mgr. Dominika Grygarová, Ph.D.
• Advisors: prof. RNDr. Daniel Frynta, Ph.D.

Preliminary scope of work

Některé druhy zvířat, jako například hadi, pavouci a velké šelmy jou vnímány lidským mozkem prioritně, ať už z hlediska pozornosti, schopnosti rychle reagovat, tak i emocionálního prožitku, který toto vnímání doprovází. Proximátně toto vnímání zajišťuje několik peciálních neurálních okruhů spojených s vizuálním vnímáním, dráhami vedoucími do a z amygdali a se systémem zpětné regulace prožívaných emocí. Některé z těchto stimulů jsou tak vnímány nevědomě, což umožňuje člověku reagovat rychleji, než si zpětně uvědomí pravou povahu podnětu. Předpokládá se, že řada těchto okruhů je spojena se stimuly, které měly v lidské evoluci speciální význam. Cílem této práce je shrnout různou metodiku testování zvířat jakožto prioritních stimulů, popsat fungování hlavních neurálních okruhů tohoto prioritního vnímání a zhodnotit současné evoluční interpretace tohoto fenoménu.

Doporučená literatura:
Penkunas, M. J., & Coss, R. G. (2014). Dangerous animals capture and maintain attention in humans.
Van Strien, J. W., Eijlers, R., Franken, I. H. A., & Huijding, J. (2014). Snake pictures draw more early attention than spider pictures in non-phobic women: evidence from event-related brain potentials. Biological psychology, 96, 150-157.
Etting, S. F., Isbell, L. A., & Grote, M. N. (2014). Factors increasing snake detection and perceived threat in captive rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta). American journal of primatology, 76(2), 135-145.
Thrasher, C., & Lobue, V. (2015). Do infants find snakes aversive? Infants’ physiological responses to “fear-relevant” stimuli. Journal of experimental child psychology.

Preliminary scope of work in English

There are stimuli that are perceived as a priority by humans. Evolutionary psychology assumes that they were (or they still are) important for an evaluation of dangerous situations in the context of predation or social aggression. Such priority reactions are evoked by animals, which were dangerous or important to humans during our evolutionary history. These include big carnivores, snakes, and also spiders. Human brain perceives these stimuli as a priority, both by increased attention to the stimuli and by using faster emotional reaction to them. This priority perception is provided by shortcuts – special neural circuits of the brain, which connect the visual system with the amygdala and with the system responsible for the regulation of the experienced emotion. This circuit makes the rapid response to particular stimuli possible – humans can react unconsciously, even before they realize the true nature of the stimulus. After processing the visual information by the „common“ route, a conscious response to the stimulus follows. The unconscious response may be strenghtened or stopped during this step. Stimuli that are perceived in priority were probably of a great significance to humans during evolution and altough nowadays the animals pose much lower (or none at all) risk to humans, the systems responsible for priority perception have been preserved. The purpose of this thesis is to summarize and compare the methodological approaches of the papers testing the priority perception of animals, both in terms of attention to certain types of stimuli and neural mechanisms of this perception, as well as to evaluate current ontogenetic and evolutionary interpretation of this phenomenon.

Literature:
Penkunas, M. J., & Coss, R. G. (2014). Dangerous animals capture and maintain attention in humans.
Van Strien, J. W., Eijlers, R., Franken, I. H. A., & Huijding, J. (2014). Snake pictures draw more early attention than spider pictures in non-phobic women: evidence from event-related brain potentials. Biological psychology, 96, 150-157.
Etting, S. F., Isbell, L. A., & Grote, M. N. (2014). Factors increasing snake detection and perceived threat in captive rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta). American journal of primatology, 76(2), 135-145.
Thrasher, C., & Lobue, V. (2015). Do infants find snakes aversive? Infants’ physiological responses to “fear-relevant” stimuli. Journal of experimental child psychology.