Seminars are open to all visitors and start Monday at 16:00 sharp. Coffee and tea will be served from 15:45. The seminar series lectures are in a colloquiumzaal at the third floor (entrance level) of the Faculty building of Erasmus MC.
Seth Grant * Canceled! *
Origins and evolution of synapse complexity shape behavioural repertoire
| 2009-02-02 | Room: Cancelled |
The hallmark of the human brain is its large size and anatomical complexity. Within this complexity is the fundamental role of synapses – the junctions between nerve cells – that transmit electrical information between neurons. There are approximately a million billion synapses in the human brain. Surprisingly little is known about the origins of synapses or their evolution. Synapses in the mouse contain approximately 1000 different proteins, which are organised into networks of interactions. These networks perform signal integration functions and convert electrical activity into long-term biochemical events underpinning learning and memory. This set of proteins is a starting point for comparison of different species and a path toward identifying the ancestral origins of synapses. In this lecture, the origins of the nervous system and the emergence of complex behavioural repertoires of vertebrates will be explained in terms of an ancestral or proto-synapse that originated in single cell animals. This protosynapse was embellished by addition of new proteins during evolution of metazoans and chordates. With this embellishment came new neuronal and behavioural functions including higher cognitive functions such as strategy choice for particular learning tasks. This work leads to a general model for the evolution and diversification of the brain and the molecular basis of complex behaviours.