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Homology and convergence in nervous system evolution

11 - 12 March 2015 09:00 - 17:10

Satellite meeting organised by Professor Nicholas Strausfeld FRS and Dr Frank Hirth

Event details

Today's many different nervous systems illustrate a major conundrum in evolutionary theory: do neurons and brains share common descent (homology) or do they derive from independent (homoplasic) origins? The aim of this meeting is to clarify and discuss evidence for homologous brain segments and circuits across phyla, as well as competing evidence for and against independent origins of nervous systems.

Abstracts and biographies of the organisers and speakers are available below. A selection of papers from the meeting will be published in a future issue of Philosophical Transactions B.

Attending this event

This meeting has already taken place. Recorded audio of the presentations can be found below.

The meeting was preceded by the discussion meeting Origin and evolution of the nervous system held at the Royal Society, London.

Enquiries: Contact the events team

Organisers

  • Professor Nicholas Strausfeld FRS, University of Arizona, USA

    Nicholas Strausfeld received his BSc and PhD from University College London. After postdoctoral research at the University of Frankfurt as an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow he joined the Max-Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics in Tübingen and from there moved to the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in 1975. He took his habilitation at the University of Frankfurt in 1986 and then moved to the University of Arizona. He received a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship in 1994, a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Fellowship in 1995, an Alexander von Humboldt Senior Research Prize in 2001, and a Volkswagen Stiftung Visiting Professorship in 2009. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of London in 2002. He is presently a Regents' Professor in the Department of Neuroscience and Director of the University of Arizona's Center for Insect Science. He has authored two books: “Atlas of an Insect Brain” (1976) and “Arthropod Brains: Evolution, Functional Elegance, and Historical Significance” (2012).

  • Dr Frank Hirth, King's College London, UK

    Frank Hirth is a senior lecturer and principal investigator at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience (IoPPN) at King's College London. He received his PhD in Zoology at the University of Basel in Switzerland and trained in neurogenetics at the universities of Freiburg, Basel and the MRC National Institute of Medical Research in London. During his time at the Institute of Zoology in Basel, he discovered evolutionary conserved genetic mechanisms underlying pattern formation in the insect and mammalian brain. His current research focuses on neural mechanisms underlying action selection in health and disease, and their evolutionary conservation.