ERC Consolidator Grant · 2021
The evolution of neural circuits for navigational decisions - from synapses to behavior
Of the 1.2 million animal species described on Earth, more than 80% are insects. As for mammals, each insect is equipped with a brain that has evolved to optimally control the species’ behavior in the context of its environment. In more than 450 million years of evolution the neural circuits guiding behavioral decisions have diverged from an ancestral version to enable insects to conquer every terrestrial habitat on the planet and to equip many species with behavioral strategies that rival even mammals in complexity. These circuits thus have to be rigid enough to maintain their ancestral, core functions, while also being sufficiently adaptable to enable the addition of novel functions. The…
From the public funding record at EU CORDIS. Describes the funded project, not the reviews below.