Overall Research Project Description The student will join a collaboration to understand how the architecture of neural circuits constrains or facilitates the evolution of behavior. We have been studying for ~20 years how reproductive behaviors (male acoustic signals and female preferences for these signals) diverge and evolve as new species form. We are currently using an empirically based computational model of four interconnecting neurons to understand how changes in the activities of neurotransmitter receptors affect the response of the neurons in the circuit and behavior of females choosing among males producing different mating calls. The student will use the existing model to develop an interactive simulator that will allow the user to see graphically how phenotypes at different levels change in concert. More specifically, the user of the simulator will be able to select a frog call to play to the input neuron, select properties of the receptors, then see how the neurons in the circuit fire in real time. The resulting effect on the female preference functions will also be displayed. Finally, we will conduct simulations of frog populations evolving on a fitness landscape, with the goal to understand how the architecture of the neural circuits may direct influence the evolution of reproductive isolation as the populations diverge into multiple species.