O NICE_Lab tem o prazer de apresentar mais uma sessão do NICE_Talks, que decorrerá no dia 11 de abril às 14h30 na Sala 411 (Piso 4 do Edíficio da Biblioteca) e Online.
Esta sessão será dedicada à área da Evolução, Neurociências do Comportamento, Cognição e Cognição Social.
A Prof.ª Doutora Susana Varela apresentará trabalho intitulado "The evolution of sociality and social cognition"
Inscrições aqui
Linha de investigação: Evolução, Neurociências do Comportamento, Cognição e Cognição Social
Tema: The evolution of sociality and social cognition
Preletor: Profª Doutora Susana Varela (CIIS - FCSE/UCP)
The social brain and social intelligence hypotheses (SBIH) posit that group living generates the selective forces that have driven the evolution of enhanced general cognitive abilities and brain size, both in humans and other animals. These hypotheses have generated a significant debate and the available evidence supporting them is still scarce. Experimental approaches that explicitly test their assumptions and predictions are necessary. We have been doing this with zebrafish (Danio rerio), a species that has become an established vertebrate model in behavioural neuroscience, and in fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster), the model species with the most extensive genetic tools to study the nervous system. With zebrafish, we conducted an artificial selection experiment for sociality in which individuals were phenotyped, over six generations, for their preference to associate with conspecifics relative to a non-social stimulus. We established four selection lines by crossing fish with the highest, lowest, equal, and random preference for the social stimulus. With fruit flies, we studied the social and asocial learning performances of a set of homozygous sequenced lines derived from the same wildtype population. In both cases, our results support the SBIH but suggest the evolution of a special rather than a general-purpose cognitive mechanism for sociability.
As NICE_Talks são um espaço dedicado aos nossos membros, alunos de doutoramento e mestrado que promove a partilha de ideias e de conhecimentos. Estes encontros reúnem convidados especializados em diversas áreas de investigação alinhadas com os interesses do laboratório, promovendo discussões enriquecedoras e novas oportunidades de colaboração.
