Evolution of the Nervous System

Unifying Principles
 Uniformity in how nerve cells function
through out the animal kingdom
 Great diversity in how nervous systems
are organized
 All nervous systems must allow for
stimulus and response
 The Simplest Nervous Systems
 The simplest nervous systems are found in some
cnidarians
– (example: Hydra)
 Have a nerve net
– A loosely organized system of nerves with no central
control
– Most synapses are electrical
– Impulses are bi-directional
– Stimulation at any point spreads to cause movement
of entire body
 Many radially symmetric animals such as
ctenophora (jelly fish) and echinoderms (star
fish) are similar
First Nervous System Centralization

 Some cnidarians show the first signs

of centralization
 Clusters of nerve cells control the
ability to perform more complex
motor tasks requiring coordination,
such as swimming
 Centralization in the Jellyfish
 The jellyfish (Medusa) is a cnidarian that
exhibits basic centralization
 The nervous system forms an
undifferentiated network and serves primarily
to coordinate the animal's swimming motions.
– Jellyfish's skirt must open and contract in a
coordinated manner for the animal to move
through the water.
– Nervous system serves as a simple
communications network so all parts of the
skirt open and then contract at the same
time.
 Increasing Cephalization
 Bilateral animals tend to be more active
– require sense organs and feeding structures
 Cephalization:
– concentration of sensory organs & feeding
structures at the head or forward-moving portion
of an animal
 Enlargement of the anterior ganglia that
receive this sensory input and control feeding
gave rise to the first brains
 An anterior brain connected to a nerve cord is
the basic design for all organisms with central
nervous systems
 Invertebrate Nervous Systems
 Invertebrates show increasing cepahalization up
the evolutionary ladder
 Flatworms have diffuse, ladder-like nervous
systems
 Annelids (segmented worms) & arthropods
(insects, crustaceans) have a well defined ventral
nerve cord with a brain at the anterior end
– May contain ganglia in each segment to control
movement of that segment
 Worms
 The simplest organisms to have a central
nervous system.
 More complicated nervous system allows
worms to exhibit more complex forms of
behavior.
 Although there is a separate brain in worms,
the brain is not the sole control of action.
– even with its brain removed, worms are able to
perform many types of behaviors, including
locomotion, mating, burrowing, feeding, and even
maze learning
 Mollusks
 Nervous system complexity correlates with
habitat as well as phylogeny
 Slow moving mollusks (e.g. clams) have little
or no cephalization and simple sense organs
– Nervous system is a chain of ganglia circling the
body
 Cepahalopods
– most sophisticated invertebrate nervous systems
– Octopus – large brain & large image forming eyes
– Rapid conduction along giant axons
 Insects
 Increased complexity of the brain and
nervous system.
 Giant fiber systems (also found in worms and
jellyfish) allow rapid conduction of nerve
impulses
– connect parts of the brain to muscles in legs or
wings.
 Brain divided into three specialized segments:
– Protocerebrum, deutocerebrum, tritocerebrum.
Variation & Adaptation in Insects
 Insects possess a greater variety of
sensory receptors than any other group
of organisms, including vertebrates.
– sensitive to the odors, sounds, light
patterns, texture, pressure, humidity,
temperature, and chemical composition
– concentration of sensory organs on the
head provides for rapid communication
with the brain located within.
 Remarkable variety of behaviors
 Study of Invertebrate Systems
 Provide unique opportunities for study of nerve cells
 Small nervous systems
– approximately 1000 neurons (107 fewer than humans)
 Large neurons
– easy to study electrophysiologically
 Identifiable neurons
– can be cataloged and recognized from animal to animal
 Identifiable circuits
– neurons make the same connections with one another from
animal to animal
 Simple genetics
– small genomes, short life cycles allow genetic manipulation
 Squid Giant Axon
An Important Example
 Giant axons in the mantle of the north Atlantic squid,
Loligo pealei, first noted by L.W. Williams in 1909
 The giant axon is actually a fusion of several hundred
smaller axons
 The electrical properties of this structure are,
however, the same as other neurons.
 The accessibility of several centimeters of giant axon
up to 1 mm in diameter & its viability for several hours
in physiological solution made many neurophysiology
experiments possible
Research on Squid Giant Axons
 1936 –
 The first measurement of the resting potential in
any living cell.
 1943 –
 Goldman equation derived using squid giant axons.
 1945 –
 First recording of resting potential in a living cell.
– A section of squid giant axon several cms long was
dissected free and placed in a physiological solution.
– A minute capillary tube filled with KCl was inserted down
the central axis of one end of the axon and the voltage
was recorded relative to the bath.
 And More Research
 1952 –
 Hodgkin & Huxley propose equations to
describe currents measured with
voltage clamps in squid giant axons.
– These equations could account for the
action potential.
– This turned out to have very wide
applicability for neurophysiological
phenomena in many species
 Vertebrate Nervous Systems
 Simplest vertebrates:
– fish, reptiles & amphibians
 Brain:
– becomes much larger and more complex
– composed of a series of swellings of the
anterior end of the spinal cord
 The spinal cord
– protected by the vertebrae
– Serves as a two-way path of
communication
– fibers segregated into descending motor
pathways and ascending sensory pathways
Evolution of the Vertebrate Brain
 The vertebrate brain began as 3 bulges at the
anterior end of the spinal cord:
– Prosencephalon (forebrain)
– Mesencepahlon (midbrain)
– Rhombencephalon (hindbrain)
 These are present in all vertebrates
 In more complex brains, they are further
subdivided for integration of complex tasks
 Complex behaviors due to increased brain
complexity
Comparing Vertebrate Brains
Fish

Amphibian

Reptile

Mammals
Three Trends in Brain Evolution
 Relative size of the brain increases
– Brain size is a constant proportion of body weight
in fishes, amphibians, and reptiles
– Increases relative to body size in birds &
mammals
 Increased compartmentalization of function
 Increasing complexity of the forebrain
– Transition from water to land of amphibians &
reptiles made vision & hearing more important,
favoring enlargement of the midbrain & hindbrain
 More complex behaviors parallel growth of
cerebrum
 Convolutions
 Convolutions increase surface area
 Surface area is more important than
volume in determining complexity
because cell bodies are in the cortex
 Greatest in primates & cetaceans
(whales & porpoises)
Convolutions in Mammals
Increase in Relative Brain Size
 Mammals
 Brain keeps its three major components
 Two new structures:
 Neocerebellum ("new cerebellum")
added to the cerebellum, at the base of
the brain
 Neocortex ("new cortex") at the front of
the forebrain.
– In most mammals, these structures are not
particularly large relative to the brain stem.
– In primates they are much larger
 The Brainstem
 Present in all mammalian brains
 Oldest part of brain
 Evolved ~ 500 million yrs ago
 Called “reptilian brain” because it
resembles the entire brain of a reptile
 Handles basic functions for survival :
breathing, heart rate, etc.
 Determines alertness & detects
incoming info
 Limbic System

 Group of structures located between

the brainstem and the cortex
 Evolved between 200 & 300 million
years ago
 Called the “mammalian brain” because
it is most highly developed in mammals
 The Human Brain
 Continues four major evolutionary trends:
 Increasingly centralized in architecture
 Trend toward Encephalization (concentration
of neurons at one end of the organism)
 Size, number, and variety of elements of the
brain increased
 Increase in plasticity
 Humans have the largest ratio of brain weight
to body weight of any of earth's creatures.
 Centralized Architecture
 Evolved from a loose network of nerve cells
(as in the jellyfish) to a spinal column and
complex brain with large swellings at the
hindbrain and forebrain.
 Increasingly hierarchical
– Newer additions to the human brain are involved
in control
– The initiation of voluntary behavior, the ability to
plan, engage in conscious thought, and use
language depend on neocortical structures.
 Plasticity
 Increase in plasticity
 The brain's ability to modify itself as a
result of experience
 Makes memory and the learning of new
perceptual and motor abilities possible.