Butterfly Brain

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The angular tuning of GD neurons was expected to change only in response to aversive conditioning, while the angular tuning of HD neurons should change only during compass perturbation. Laura’s writing has expanded to stage and screen; Laura’s first film, Goldfish, received a BAFTA nomination for best short. Gus must follow the butterfly to recapture all he’s lost – including that locked box he doesn’t seem to want to touch.

This would be great to use in the classroom when talking about grief, giving the children the opportunity to discuss and empathise with others that may have gone through this. At the beginning of the book this story, told in verse, has the feel of the cautionary tales of Hilaire Belloc as we are quickly made aware through the macabre verse that Gus is doomed to an imminent accident due to his behaviour. These findings highlight the fascinating connection between brain evolution and behavioural adaptations in the natural world. To maintain the initial goal direction relative to the sun, individual butterflies adjusted their heading direction in accordance with the new sun position. Together they remember fish fingers, snapping bubble wrap, cracked pink soap and the leaky tap; they go wild, stomping around in the joy of imagination and happy dreams – but they can’t go any further if Gus won’t gather all of his memories.

There was an indication of intraventricular extension with subependymal enhancement and transependymal flow along the trigone and occipital horns of the lateral ventricles.

The compilation of nuclear pleomorphism, nuclear atypia, microvascular proliferation, and necrosis (Figure ​ (Figure2C, 2C, right) are consistent with glioblastoma, grade IV. Its bilateral extension often precludes surgical resection, yet response to other therapies is limited. Menotactic orientation optimizes animal dispersal 49 and can be expected to emerge by matching the current heading—encoded by the butterflies’ compass—with an internal goal representation 2, 3.Identifying such relationships between brain adaptations and behavioural shifts are crucial to our understanding of cognitive evolution. The classification was quantified by calculating an HD index for each neuron (for details, see “Methods”, Fig.

However, to what extent the activity of these neurons dictates the fly’s goal direction remains unclear, so far 43, 47. Other commissioned work has seen Laura collaborate with Lush, Oasis, Bacardi, EastPak, Irregular Choice and British Airways. An important message is told in this book - ‘for love never leaves you once you’ve known it in your heart.

Gus must follow the butterfly to recapture all he’s lost, including that locked box he doesn’t seem to want to touch … Together they remember fish fingers, snapping bubble wrap, cracked pink soap and the leaky tap; they go wild, stomping around in the joy of imagination and happy dreams – but they can’t go any further if Gus won’t gather all of his memories. After school she migrated north to Edinburgh to study art where she graduated with a First in illustration and was awarded the Helen A. The strong association between the animal’s heading and spatial tuning of compass neurons is apparent when the neurons’ firing rate is plotted relative to the butterflies’ mean heading (0° represents the animal’s heading direction; Fig.

Thus, in contrast to the single (southward) goal-direction set by the population of migratory monarch butterflies, the non-migratory butterflies maintain any possible goal direction with respect to a virtual sun (menotactic orientation) 48, 53.

Understanding the relationship between brain anatomy, sensory processing, and foraging behaviour in Heliconius butterflies could also provide insights into the evolution of learning and memory mechanisms in not only insects, but other animals as the function and circuitry of mushroom bodies share some similarities with vertebrate brains. Positive HD indices were expected from compass neurons that change their angular tuning, represented by the preferred firing direction (pfd), in accordance with the butterfly’s change in mean heading (green neurons in Fig. f The goal offset before (orange) and after (red) conditioning describes the difference between the animal’s goal direction (magenta lines) and the neuron’s pfd (black lines). They then investigated changes in neural circuitry by quantifying in the number of neurons in the mushroom bodies and the density of their connections, as well as sensory specialisation by tracing neural inputs from brain areas that process visual information and smell before sending it to the central brain. The butterfly reminds Gus of the happy dreams for the future and his imagination full of ideas and creative fun.