Predation risk may sculpt functional differences in identified brain neurons

MAGANI FIORELLA; LUPPI TOMAS; TOMSIC DANIEL

Huerta Grande. Cordoba

Congreso; XXVI Congreso Anual de la Sociedad Argentina de Investigación en Neurociencia; 2011

Sociedad Argentina de Investigación en Neurociencia

As a biological organ, the brain is ultimately committed to increase the animal’s fitness, by gathering and processing information and organizing the behaviour that allows them to succeed in complex dynamic environments. Thus, the designs and functioning of an animal’s brain is assumed to be highly determined by selective ecological pressures. Previous studies on the crab Neohelice granulata identified brain neurons, termed LG, that proved to play a key role in the crab’s escape response to visual danger stimuli (VDS) representing a predator attack. Here we show that three different populations of Neohelice, exposed to different risk of avian predation, present clear differences in their response to VDS. Populations exposed to higher risk showed stronger escape responses. Tests performed with other stimuli revealed no behavioural difference between them, thus ruling out an explanation of the response to the VDS in terms of unspecific effects. We have started to perform in vivo intracellular recordings of the LG neurons’ response to the VDS, our preliminary results suggesting that the behavioural differences are reflected by their performance. If confirmed, these results will represent one of the few examples of how ecological pressure shapes the functioning of individual neurons.