Evolution Of The Brain: The First Brains - Episode 1

How did the brain evolve? Why do we have a brain? What functions did our brains aqcuire over millions of years of evolution? Find out all about it in this new mini-series documentary: Evolution of the Brain.

In this first episode of the brain evolution documentary, we will find out how the first brain evolved. From simple nerve nets responding to touch, to bundles of neurons in ganglia and small brain producing autonomous movement. We discuss the neuroscience and function of these first brains. Next episode we will move on to how different senses, such as vision evolved. Later in this documentary mini-series we will end up with various episodes on the evolution of the human brain.

Production, narration, and story: Miles Wischnewski, PhD. 2021.

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Time stamps:
0:00 Intro
0:22 Why do we have a brain?
2:17 Nerve nets as first brains
3:30 Reflex arcs combining touch and movement
4:37 Radial vs Billateral symmetry
5:34 Sea squirts
6:39 Autonomous movement

References/resources
Arendt, D., Tosches, M. A., & Marlow, H. (2016). From nerve net to nerve ring, nerve cord and brain--evolution of the nervous system. Nature reviews. Neuroscience, 17(1), 61–72. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn.2015.15

Arendt, D., Bertucci, P. Y., Achim, K., & Musser, J. M. (2019). Evolution of neuronal types and families. Current opinion in neurobiology, 56, 144–152. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conb.2019.0...

Brunet, T., & Arendt, D. (2016). From damage response to action potentials: early evolution of neural and contractile modules in stem eukaryotes. Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences, 371(1685), 20150043. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2015.0043

Glenberg, A. M., Jaworski, B., Rischal, M., Levin, J. R. What brains are for: Action, meaning, and reading comprehension In D. McNamara (Ed.), Reading comprehension strategies: Theories, interventions, and technologies 2007 Mahwa, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum 221– 240.

Holland N. D. (2003). Early central nervous system evolution: an era of skin brains?. Nature reviews. Neuroscience, 4(8), 617–627. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn1175

Martín-Durán, J. M., Pang, K., Børve, A., Lê, H. S., Furu, A., Cannon, J. T., Jondelius, U., & Hejnol, A. (2018). Convergent evolution of bilaterian nerve cords. Nature, 553(7686), 45–50. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature25030

Lazar J. W. (2022). The early history of the knee-jerk reflex in neurology. Journal of the history of the neurosciences, 1–16. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/0964704X.2021...

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