Evolution ePosters

The concept that discrete actions act as an atomic basis of behavior has pervaded ethology from Lorenz and Tinbergen’s foundational studies to the current computational era. Recent research corroborates these atomic units, showing that laboratory mice choose actions that appear syllabic: i.e. both discontinuous in…

The evolution of the Na$^+$/K$^+$-ATPase in ancestral methanogenic archaea also lay the foundation for the energetics of energy-intensive signaling tissues like the metazoan nervous systems billions of years later [1]. The electrogenic property of this pump, which leads to activity-dependent feedback [2], seems a…

The function and evolution of calling song recognition networks is central to understanding speciation in insects. Evolutionary changes in the recognition network can compel speciation, so understanding the commonalities in the mechanisms by which song recognition is achieved across species can help define a central…

While sleeping, many vertebrate groups alternate between at least two sleep stages: rapid eye movement (REM) and slow wave sleep (SWS), in part characterized by wake-like and synchronous brain activity respectively. Sleep stage alternation has been implicated in learning and memory function experimentally1, and has…

Evolution has equipped vertebrates and invertebrates with neural circuits that selectively encode visual motion. In both flies and mice, early visual circuits separately detect the movement of light and dark edges. Strong parallels have been noted between the two systems in their anatomy, circuitry, and the suite of…

Inhibitory interneurons in cortex consist of many subtypes that differ in, e.g., connectivity and physiology. Recently, it was shown that —in layers 1-3 of mouse primary visual cortex— interneuron subtypes differ systematically in their modulation with an animal’s behavioural state, and that this state modulation can…

How does the organization of neural information processing enable humans’ sophisticated cognition? Here we decompose functional interactions between brain regions into synergistic and redundant components, revealing their distinct information-processing roles. Combining functional, structural, and diffusion-weighted…