MCZ Lunchtime Seminar

Distributed neural computation in an acoel and the evolution of the first brains

Vikram Chandra
Postdoctoral Researcher
Mansi Srivastava lab

The evolution of brains from diffuse nerve nets several hundred million years ago was a landmark in the history of animals, enabling new, active lifestyles and the origin of complex behavior. How did this transition happen? Most neuroscience focuses on a few taxa that share derived features of brains, and we know little about how the first brains could have been organized. To understand early brain evolution, we study the acoel worm Hofstenia miamia. Hofstenia belongs to the sister lineage to all other brainy animals. We have found that it has a 'diffuse brain' lacking the fundamental features of typical brains. Here, I will talk about our work developing Hofstenia as a new neuroscience model, what we have learnt about its brain and behavior, and what this means for how brains could have evolved.