Title: 

The evolution terrestrial visual computations

Speaker: 

Dr. Mark Shein-Idelson, Professor, 
Department of Neurobiology, 
George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, Sagol School for Neuroscience,

Abstract:

Stem amniotes - the first vertebrates to fully adapt to life on land – emerged ~320 million years ago, marking the beginning of the evolutionary trajectory leading to reptiles, birds and mammals. These amniotes featured a dramatic increase in their dorsal telencephalon including the emergence of the claustrum and the layered dorsal cortex, as well as multiple adaptations to their visual machinery and corresponding circuits in the forebrain. In my talk, I will present behavioral and neurophysiological studies in reptiles and discuss their implications on our understanding of the evolution of cognition and neural computation. Specifically, I will show evidence for complex visual acquisition strategies, invariance processing in the visual cortex, and predictive behaviors during prey capture.