Skip to main content

Advertisement

Log in

On the value of model diversity in neuroscience

  • Comment
  • Published:

From Nature Reviews Neuroscience

View current issue Sign up to alerts

Although neuroscientists focus on only very few animal species today, there are many important reasons to take advantage of model system diversity and embrace (anew) a comparative approach in modern brain research. Recent technological advances make this increasingly possible.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

References

  1. Albright, T. & Squire, L. R. (eds) The History of Neuroscience in Autobiography Vols 1–10 (Society for Neuroscience, 2018).

  2. Dobzhansky, T. Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution. Am. Biol. Teach. 35, 125–129 (1973).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Moran, Y. et al. Evolution of voltage-gated ion channels at the emergence of Metazoa. J. Exp. Biol. 218, 515–25 (2015).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Burkhardt, P. The origin and evolution of synaptic proteins — choanoflagellates lead the way. J. Exp. Biol. 218, 506–514 (2015).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Wilson, D. W. et al. A fusion protein required for vesicle-mediated transport in both mammalian cells and yeast. Nature 339, 355–359 (1989).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Holland, N. D. Early central nervous system evolution: an era of skin brains? Nat. Rev. Neurosci. 4, 617–627 (2003).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Wang, Z., Gerstein, M. & Snyder, M. RNA-Seq: a revolutionary tool for transcriptomics. Nat. Rev. Genet. 10, 57–63 (2009).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Lander, E. S. The heroes of CRISPR. Cell 164, 18–28 (2016).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Camhi, J. Neuroethology — Nerve cells and the natural behavior of animals (Sinauer Associates, 1984).

  10. Marder, E., Bucher, D. & Prinz, A. A. Similar network activity from disparate circuit parameters. Nat. Neurosci. 7, 1345–1352 (2004).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Gilles Laurent.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The author declares no competing interests.

Additional information

Related links

A Look at NIH Support for Model Organisms, Part Two: https://nexus.od.nih.gov/all/2016/08/03/model-organisms-part-two/

A Look at Trends in NIH’s Model Organism Research Support: https://nexus.od.nih.gov/all/2016/07/14/a-look-at-trends-in-nihs-model-organism-research-support/

IUCN Red List of Ecosystems: https://www.iucn.org/resources/conservation-tools/iucn-red-list-ecosystems

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Laurent, G. On the value of model diversity in neuroscience. Nat Rev Neurosci 21, 395–396 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41583-020-0323-1

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41583-020-0323-1

  • Springer Nature Limited

This article is cited by

Navigation