We work in areas spanning evolutionary neurobiology, neuroecology, cognitive ecology and behaviour.
We are interested in how brains evolve to produce behavioural and ecological diversity. To try to understand these links, we combine a range of approaches, including behaviour and ecology, neuroanatomy and development, and comparative genomics.
We are interested in how brains evolve to produce behavioural and ecological diversity. To try to understand these links, we combine a range of approaches, including behaviour and ecology, neuroanatomy and development, and comparative genomics.
Photo by Sebas Mena
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Mushroom body expansion in Heliconius butterflies
Heliconius MBs are among the largest of any insect, and 4-fold larger than typical for Lepidoptera including close relatives in the Heliconiini tribe. Our group is developing this system as a model of brain expansion to ask four key questions: i) How does MB expansion enhance behavioural function, and what ecological factors caused this shift? ii) How do volumetric changes relate to differences in neuron number, density and connectivity? iii) What developmental mechanisms control region-specific changes in neural proliferation? And iv) what is the molecular basis of MB expansion? As well as having expanded MBs, Heliconius also live six times longer than their closest relatives. We are integrating studies of longevity into our MB work to further develop Heliconius as an insect model of delayed cognitive and neural senescence. People involved: Adam, Amaia, Antoine, Denise, Elizabeth, Francesco, Jessie, Laura, Louise, Marianne, Max, Rami, Steve, Theodora, Priscila Collaborators: James Hodge (Bristol), Owen McMillan (STRI), Araxi Urrutia (Bath) Arnaud Martin (GWU), Basil el Jundi (NTNU), Lin Bacquet (IKIAM) |
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Sensory neuroecology of niche partitioning
The importance of behavioural evolution during speciation is well established, but we know little about how this is manifest in sensory and neural systems. Although a handful of studies have linked specific neural changes to divergence in host or mate preferences associated with speciation, how brains respond to broad environmental transitions, and whether this contributes to reproductive isolation, remains unknown. We are combining comparisons of brain and behavioural divergence between closely related ‘incipient’ species of Heliconius butterflies, with broad comparative analyses across communities of mimetic butterflies in the Heliconiini and Ithomiini tribes. Our aim is to understand how brains evolve in response to divergent and convergent ecologies, and the role of plasticity and adaptation in neural traits during ecological speciation and niche partitioning. People involved: Benito, Denise, David, Laura, Steve Collaborators: Martin How (Bristol), Nick Roberts (Bristol), Jolyon Troscianko (Exeter), Richard Merrill (LMU), Camillo Salazar (Rosario), Carolina Pardo (Rosario) |
Photo by Sebas Mena
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Photo by Stephen Montgomery
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Convergent evolution of gregarious behaviour Gregarious behaviour has evolved many times in a wide range of animals. The prevalence of gregariousness poses many interesting evolutionary questions; For example, how is the conflict between competition and cooperation balanced? What are the advantages of social behaviour? And what are the costs? But it also leads to many mechanistic questions; how do animals sense each other? How do they track each other’s behaviour? This project aims to approach these questions using comparative phylogenetic analyses, field and behavioural experiments. People involved: Callum, Francesco, Steve Collaborators: Innes Cuthill (Bristol), Christos Ioannou (Bristol) |
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Evolution of a kin recognition system
How do altruistic individuals recognise social parasites? In some bees, wasps and ants most individuals forgo reproduction to support the offspring of others. This evolutionary conundrum is explained by kin selection, where helping related individuals indirectly promotes the helper’s overall fitness. However, this strategy is vulnerable to exploitation. An ability to distinguish kin from non-kin is therefore critical for social living to evolve. By combining broad taxonomic sampling with detailed neuroanatomical, molecular and functional characterisation of the sensory structures underpinning kin recognition, we are investigating the neural adaptations that support this behaviour, and the remarkable diversity of Hymenopteran social systems. People involved: Alice, Antoine, Francesco, Steve Collaborators: Simon Marty and Jean-Christope Sandoz (CNRS Université Paris Sud) and Patrizia d'Ettorre (Université Sorbonne Paris Nord) |
Photo by Carsten Siegel
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Photo by Stephen Montgomery
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Patterns and mechanisms of vertebrate brain evolution I have a long standing interest in combining genetic and phenotypic data to understand the evolution of mammalian brains. This work has investigated whether independent episodes of brain expansion share a common molecular basis, whether different phases of brain development have a distinct genetic basis, and whether co-evolution between different brain regions involves shared, or specific sets of genes. We have also provided evidence of partial de-couplings between brain and body evolution, and documented convergence and reversals in mammalian brain evolution. Most recently we are testing the extent, nature and conservation of genetic associations among brain components using interspecific-crosses between three pairs of cichlid species that are increasingly divergent from one another, allowing us to compare how the genes involved in brain evolution vary over time. People involved: Jake, Steve Collaborators: Emilia Santos (University of Cambridge), Rob Barton (University of Durham), Nick Mundy (University of Cambridge) |