“Nothing in Biology Makes Sense Except in the Light of Evolution.” Theodosius Dobzhansky
My talk will shine this light onto some specializations in neurons and neuronal networks. The starting point is the distributed nature of information transfer and encoding. In a mammal’s brain, a given input is relayed to hundreds or thousands of neurons, which then collectively transmit it further up the...
Sexual signals play a crucial role in driving speciation and evolution. A key function of these signals is to communicate species identity. Signaling species identity creates reproductive barriers by enabling recognition of conspecific mates and discrimination against incompatible heterospecifics. The signals and signal preferences can evolve rapidly in speciation events, yet research has...
A fundamental property of neurons in the primary visual cortex is their preference for orientation of edges that is invariant under contrast changes.
We designed a synthetic hybrid neural circuit to study the emergence of orientation selectivity under different thalamo-cortical connection schemes. To this end, a computational model of the retino-thalamic pathway was combined with an in-vitro...
Evolutionary adaptations of brain structure and function are essential for animal survival and emerge during development. Some known divergences seen in brain development are likely relevant for brain function. For instance, adult neurogenesis in mushroom bodies is found in beetles but not in flies and might modify learning behavior. Further, beetle larvae have a partial central complex (CX)...
Marine invertebrate larvae with pelago-benthic life cycles employ distinct locomotory strategies: swimming larvae move by ciliary beating during the pelagic phase, while benthic adults use muscles for crawling. Despite the fundamental importance of this lifestyle and behavioural change, the developmental and evolutionary relationships between the underlying nervous systems remain poorly...
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