BIO

My name is Courtney, and I am a first-year student from Charlotte, NC. I am a Computational Biology major and hope to have a career in the medical field in the future. I have enjoyed being able to participate in Dr. Lemmon's lab and look forward to gaining more experience in research throughout my academic career!

Modeling Neural Circuits to Understand Incipient Speciation Part 1: Quantifying Potential for Reproductive Isolation

Abstract

As a certain species evolves over time, their neural circuits, or the structure of how neurons are arranged by synapses for a function, also evolve. However, evolution of neural circuits may also inhibit evolution. This experiment explores the aspects of neural circuits in chorus frogs to take note of the relationship between evolution and neural circuits. Through our research, we aim to create a computational model of the frogs’ neural circuits to predict the chances of speciation. We are analyzing frogs found in the southeastern United States, and using computer programs that compute likelihood scores of breeding compatibility and success between frogs from different populations. Neural circuits have redundant parameterization, and throughout the experiment, we have seen that several distinct parameter sets can produce neural circuits that respond in the same way to a suite of calls. The next part of the experiment will explore the way the behavior changes across parameter space to find if it is consistent from one peak to another. Recognizing the correlation between neural circuits and evolution allows us to predict and analyze evolution patterns in other species, and results from this project paves a way for future endeavors in the field of evolution and neuroscience.

Keywords: neural circuits, evolution, reproductive isolation