Dr. Shein-Idelson new winner of the ERC Starting Grant

Congratulations on this achievement

Dr. Shein-Idelson new winner of the ERC Starting Grant

ReptiCode – The Evolution and Function of Ancestral Brain States

 

RepiCode addresses one of the oldest enigmas in neuroscience: What is the function of brain states? We constantly switch between different behavioural states: we attend salient stimuli, we engage in precise motor activity or we quietly sit still as our mind wanders off. These behavioural transitions are accompanied by distinct changes in the firing patterns of neurons in the brain. Strikingly, such transitions are even more prominent during sleep, when interaction with the environment is limited. The functional role of these neural patterns as well as the similarities between sleep and awake patterns remains unexplained.

 

Why is the function of brain states so elusive? A likely explanation is that state transitions are inextricably intertwined with many other processes, rendering their dissection difficult. ReptiCode is motivated by the notion that to understand brain states we need to: a) examine them in a simpler model system, b) understand how they evolved, c) identify which state properties are fundamental and which are species specific. Our aim in ReptiCode is to utilize the simpler and highly structured state organization in the lizard Pogona Vitticeps, to expose the full repertoire of brain states in a naturally behaving animal. We will take advantage of the limited diversity of motor movements in Pogona, to expose the link between population patterns and defined behaviors. We will furthermore exploit the unique evolutionary positions of reptiles as closest to stem amniotes, in which the layered cortex and hippocampus first emerged, to reveal the forces that pushed the emergence of brain states in evolution. Finally, through a comparative analysis of brain state properties between different lizards and mammals we plan to extract the fundamental properties and functions of brain states and the network that supports them.

 

Students and postdocs interested in taking part in this research are welcome to contact Dr. Shein-Idelson (sheinmark@tauex.tau.ac.il).

 

 

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