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On the value of model diversity in neuroscience

Nature Reviews Neuroscience volume 21, pages 395–396 (2020)Cite this article

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Although neuroscientists focus on only very few animal species today, there are many important reasons to take advantage of model system diversity and embrace (anew) a comparative approach in modern brain research. Recent technological advances make this increasingly possible.

Long before neuroscience was its own discipline, those interested in the brain and neurons — neurologists, psychologists, philosophers — studied various species to further their understanding. From 1900, neuroscience (as distinct from neurology) established itself as one of the most diverse and ambitious disciplines of modern science. Its achievements were based on experiments in a huge range of species1, including Limulus, crustaceans, insects, molluscs, lampreys, frogs, turtles, owls, rabbits, cats, bats, and primates, including humans, to name but a few. Across these systems, fundamental facts and concepts — including all-or-none signals, rate codes, adaptation, excitatory and inhibitory neurotransmission, membrane currents, ion channels, receptive fields, brain maps, lateral inhibition, neuromodulation, central pattern-generating circuits, and neural oscillations and rhythms — were first demonstrated. In the mid-1980s, however, this diversity, which had been so critical to neuroscience, began to narrow.

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  1. Max Planck Institute for Brain Research, Frankfurt, Germany

    Gilles Laurent

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  1. Gilles Laurent
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Correspondence to Gilles Laurent.

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Related links

A Look at NIH Support for Model Organisms, Part Two: https://nexus.od.nih.gov/all/2016/08/03/model-organisms-part-two/

A Look at Trends in NIH’s Model Organism Research Support: https://nexus.od.nih.gov/all/2016/07/14/a-look-at-trends-in-nihs-model-organism-research-support/

IUCN Red List of Ecosystems: https://www.iucn.org/resources/conservation-tools/iucn-red-list-ecosystems

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Laurent, G. On the value of model diversity in neuroscience. Nat Rev Neurosci 21, 395–396 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41583-020-0323-1

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