Tau.Neutrino said:
Researchers Have Reorganised an Animal’s Brain to Act Like Another Species’ Brain
Species that share similar kinds of brain anatomy have been caught using different neural circuits to perform identical behaviours, and it challenges a basic assumption on the relationship between behaviour and neurology.
The team is yet to figure out why this strange overlap exists among species, but the discovery points to how important behaviours can be retained as certain animals evolve.
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Previous research by Katz and his colleagues had already shown that in spite of having the same basic brain structures, each species of nudibranch used a different arrangement of pathways between neurons to achieve the same swimming pattern.
So the big question was whether it was possible to rewire the brain of one nudibranch to match the pattern of neural connections in the other nudibranch and observe the same behaviour.
The team used a toxic plant extract called curare to block individual connections between neurons in the giant nudibranch, preventing its brain from producing the sequence of impulses that would allow it to swim.
They then used electrode implants to artificially simulate the connections between the brain cells of the hooded nudibranch.
This allowed the giant nudibranch to swim again, only this time using the same neurons in a completely different way”