Project description
Mapping the circuits behind behaviour
Animal behaviour is fantastically diverse, yet we know very little about how brains evolve to produce this diversity. What changes and what stays the same? The ERC-funded CircuitEvolution project will answer these questions by exploring how brain wiring changes across species as behaviours evolve. Using high-resolution electron microscopy, researchers will map the complete brains of seven fruit fly species at different evolutionary distances. By comparing brain-wide neural circuits, the team will identify both conserved structures and newly evolved ones linked to traits like courtship, vision and smell. Combining neuroscience, genetics and statistical physics, the project pioneers a new field: whole-brain comparative connectomics. The findings will offer insights into how nervous systems evolve and impact the design of AI systems.
Objective
Animals display remarkable diversity in their behaviors, yet very little is known about how nervous systems evolve to generate such
variation. CircuitEvolution will answer two fundamental questions:
1. How does brain wiring change across species as novel behavioral traits evolve?
2. What core features of brain circuits are deeply conserved across species?
We will use electron microscopy connectomics, the only method that enables unbiased, brain-wide structural analysis of the synaptic
connectivity between all neurons. Building on recent rapid progress in Drosophila melanogaster, the frontier of whole brain
connectomics, we will target drosophilids at a strategically selected range of evolutionary divergences. Two PIs (Cardona, Jefferis) are
pioneers in Drosophila connectomics, and our third PI (Ruta) and collaborators (Prieto-Godino, Benton) have pioneered molecular
genetic investigation of behavioral and circuit evolution across drosophilids. Crucially, with our fourth PI (statistical physicist, Sales
Pardo), we will identify conserved and divergent neurons and circuits across increasingly distant species, developing new inference
methods for connectome alignment, simplification, and neuron annotation. Working together on this project we can develop a new
field of whole-brain comparative connectomics.
With cutting edge technology, we will obtain and share multiple connectomes for 7 species. These unique datasets will allow
comparisons across species, sexes and developmental stages and support three areas of biological investigation within this grant:
olfactory circuits, courtship behavior and the conserved core of the insect brain. This will generate many hypotheses that will be
tested experimentally by the PIs, collaborators and laboratories worldwide. The insights and methods will have a major impact on
understanding conserved and evolving circuit function across phyla all the way to mammalian brains and impact the design of
artificial intelligence systems.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
This project's classification has been human-validated.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
This project's classification has been human-validated.
Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-ERC-SYG - HORIZON ERC Synergy Grants
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2024-SyG
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
SN2 1FL SWINDON
United Kingdom
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.