Zooming in: a look into how brains work

In the late 19th century, Hermann von Helmholtz laid the groundwork for a theory of brain perception. Refined and challenged by generations of scientists since, it remains a leading theory for how humans turn sensory information into beliefs about the world. In this talk, I will describe the science behind the Bayesian Brain Hypothesis, and how it might explain some of the differences in sensory processing experienced by neurodivergent people. This talk will be neuro-inclusive and presented by an autistic researcher.

Brains are made up of many different kinds of cells which can be split into two major categories: Neurons which transmit electrical impulses, and glia, which do not. Instead, glia seem to take on many different roles in the brain, from guiding the growth of new neural circuits and keeping the system running to tightly fine-tuning every passing signal. But while neurons have been studied in academia for well over a century now, research into glia has only picked up recently. These newly popular cells don’t only exist in humans, but also in many other kinds of animals – from worms to whales. What do we know about glia in more obscure species? And how did they evolve in the first place? In this project, we discovered a new group of glia cells in the larvae of a species of marine worms. This discovery lets us learn more about glia outside of classic ‘lab animals’ and might hold answers to some questions about how nervous systems as we know them today came to be.

The neurohormone kisspeptin plays a critical role in puberty and reproduction in humans and other mammals. In the early 2000s, scientists found that without kisspeptin, sexual development in humans and mice is affected, and the onset of puberty is delayed. But is regulation of reproductive development the only role of kisspeptin, and when during the history of life on Earth did this neurohormone evolve? To address these questions, we investigated the occurrence and function of kisspeptins in a five-sided invertebrate - the starfish. This revealed that starfish have lots of different kisspeptin-like molecules that also regulate the reproductive organs (gonads), but they also have other functions. Kisspeptins trigger eversion of the stomach out of the mouth in starfish, mimicking a process that occurs naturally when starfish feed on their prey (mussels). In this talk, I’ll show how studying marine animals like starfish can teach us about our own biology and how chemical signals have evolved to have many different purposes. You’ll hear about hormones, behaviour, and why starfish are fascinating and important animals to study.