SPP 2205:  Evolutionary Optimisation of Neuronal Processing

• Subject Area: Medicine ; Biology
• Term: since 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 402741184

Despite spectacular progress in artificial intelligence and machine learning, the information processing capabilities of animal and human brains still far surpass man made machines. This pertains particularly with respect to the robustness and flexibility of neurobiological information processing and its energy efficiency. Recent progress has opened new and stringent perspectives on the evolution of central nervous system structure, information processing and development. The development of advanced computational optimization theories for neuronal circuits has seen similar progress over the past decade. Together these developments are setting the stage to take a novel approach and systematically decipher the principles underlying the evolution and optimization of biological neuronal information processing. The mission of the PP ‘Evolutionary Optimisation of Neuronal Processing’, is to define paradigms and standards for a new theory-grounded and quantitatively precise approach to neural circuit evolution to make the best use of opportunities to generate core examples and success stories for solving the selective pressures driving innovations in nervous system evolution, for the integration of genomic studies of neural cell type and neural circuit evolution, as well as for a theoretical and quantitative understanding of their evolutionary driving forces. The PP serves the mission to support pioneering studies in three thematic foci A) The Evolution of Core Circuits, B) Defining the Limits of Performance and B) Genomic Trajectories of Neural Circuit Evolution. These thematic foci are set up to utilize Germany’s unique infrastructure in theoretical and systems neuroscience, support collaboration and cross-fertilization between traditionally separated communities such as evolutionary developmental biology and theoretical neuroscience and form a vigorous community to train a next generation of evolutionary and integrative neuroscientists.

• DFG Programme: Priority Programmes
• International Connection: Austria, Japan, Switzerland

Projects

• A three-dimensional investigation of the avian thalamofugal visual system – Functional properties, relation to the avian tectofugal system and comparison to the mammalian cortex (Applicants Güntürkün, Onur ;  Pusch, Roland ;  Rose, Jonas )
• Benchmarking birds core object recognition abilities with rodents and primates (Applicant Rose, Jonas )
• Coordination Funds (Applicant Wolf, Fred )
• Deciphering the neuronal codes for convergently evolved working memory functions in humans, monkeys, and crows (Applicants Mormann, Florian ;  Nieder, Andreas )
• Efficient representations of fast dynamic stimuli in populations of ON- and OFF-cells} (Applicants Benda, Jan ;  Grewe, Jan ;  Lindner, Benjamin )
• Evolution of Sensorimotor Transformation Across Diptera (Applicants Jösch, Maximilian ;  Mlynarski, Ph.D., Wiktor )
• Evolutionary Convergence of Hierarchical Information Processing (Applicants Priesemann, Viola ;  Wibral, Michael )
• Evolutionary optimization of neuronal network dynamics for recipient-optimized cross-area communication (Applicants Helias, Moritz ;  Musall, Simon )
• Evolutionary specialization of neuronal core circuits in arthropod olfactory systems: structure and function of convergence/divergence in crustaceans versus insects (Applicants Harzsch, Steffen ;  Nawrot, Martin Paul ;  Rybak, Jürgen )
• Evolving to be flexible - optimizing task-dependent information processing in the visual system (Applicants Ernst, Udo A. ;  Kreiter, Andreas K. )
• From Branch to Branch: Unravelling Primate Vision in Arboreal Leaping and Navigation (Applicants Fichtel, Claudia ;  Wolf, Fred )
• Identification of conserved circuit logic in temperature navigation behavior in fish and fly (Applicants Grunwald Kadow, Ilona ;  Portugues, Ruben )
• Modeling dynamics, function and evolution of earliest nervous systems (Applicant Memmesheimer, Raoul-Martin )
• NeuroParTI: Evolutionary Trade-off Analysis of Human and Macaque Monkey Neurochemistry (Applicants Palomero-Gallagher, Ph.D., Nicola ;  Patil, Ph.D., Kaustubh R. )
• One worm, two minds: Investigating divergent neuronal architecture associated with the evolution of a polyphenic behavioural trait. (Applicant Lightfoot, Ph.D., James )
• Plug and play integration of a new sensory channel in evolution – experiment and theory (Applicants Kampa, Ph.D., Björn Michael ;  Rotter, Stefan )
• Saccadic suppression: from zebrafish to primates (Applicants Arrenberg, Ph.D., Aristides ;  Hafed, Ph.D., Ziad )
• Spatially anisotropic and isotropic lateral inhibition: Convergent circuit designs in the insect antennal lobe and vertebrate olfactory bulb (Applicants Egger, Veronica ;  Sachse, Silke )
• Task-dependent Orchestration of Insect Olfactory Sensory Neuron Performance (Applicants Kittel, Robert J. ;  Wicher, Dieter )
• The evolution and organization of non-canonical olfactory systems in ants and other insects (Applicants Darras, Ph.D., Hugo ;  Foitzik, Susanne ;  Martelli, Ph.D., Carlotta )
• The evolutionary mechanisms optimizing neural circuit structure and function for skylight navigation across insect species (Applicants Nowick, Katja ;  Wernet, Mathias )
• The impact of network architecture on evolvability and robustness: Comparing the song recognition networks of grasshoppers and crickets (Applicants Benda, Jan ;  Clemens, Jan )
• Visual system design from dynamic stimulus constraints (Applicants Gjorgjieva, Ph.D., Julijana ;  Silies, Marion )

• Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Fred Wolf