Roberto Feuda. Credit: University of Leicester
Key points:
- Researchers have discovered that the genes required for learning, memory, aggression and other complex behaviors originated around 650 million years ago.
- The discovery and future research can help clarify the origin of complex behaviors, as well as which neurons module processes like sleep and feeding.
- The team suggests that the new way to modulate neuronal circuits might have played a role in the Big Bang.
A team of scientists from the University of Leicester have discovered that the genes required for learning, memory, aggression and other complex behaviors originated around 650 million years ago. The discovery is expected to open new important research avenues that will clarify the origin of complex behaviors and if the same neurons modulate reward, addiction, aggression, feeding and sleep.
Scientists have known for a long time that monoamines like serotonin, dopamine and adrenaline act as neuromodulators in the nervous system, playing a role in complex behavior and functions like learning and memory, as well as processes such as sleep and feeding. However, less certain was the origin of the genes required for the production, detection and degradation of these monoamines.
Using computational methods described in Nature Communications, researchers reconstructed the evolutionary history of the genes. The results showed that most of the genes involved in monoamine production, modulation and reception originated in the bilaterian stem group.
“This finding has profound implications on the evolutionary origin of complex behaviors, such as those modulated by monoamines we observe in humans and other animals,” said study author Roberto Feuda.
Feuda and team suggest that this new way to modulate neuronal circuits might have played a role in the Big Bang, which gave rise to the largest diversification of life for most major animal groups alive today, by providing flexibility of the neural circuits to facilitate interaction with the environment.