Reverse engineering Hydra
Friday, October 8, 2021
15:50 UTC
Prof Adrienne Fairhall
University of Washington
Recording
Open recording
Hosted by SWC Symposium70 minutes
Abstract
Hydra is an extraordinary creature. Continuously replacing itself, it can live indefinitely, performing a stable repertoire of reasonably sophisticated behaviors. This remarkable stability under plasticity may be due to the uniform nature of its nervous system, which consists of two apparently noncommunicating nerve net layers. We use modeling to understand the role of active muscles and biomechanics interact with neural activity to shape Hydra behaviour. We will discuss our findings and thoughts on how this simple nervous system may self-organize to produce purposeful behavior.
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