Question: Do you also work on the brains and neuroscience of animals? And if so, what is the most suprising thing that you have found in relation to animal brains and human brains? (similarites/differences)

Luke Bryden answered on 5 May 2020:

Hey Kyan. This is a really good and important pair of questions. I use the mouse as a ‘model’ for my research because we cannot access the human brain. It would be unethical to do so (except in some exceptional circumstances).
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I did some previous research that involved assessing the neuroscience of animals directly. On my industrial placement year, I was involved in developing a new behavioural test in rats/mice to assess their pain state. Mice and rats respond to pain very differently to humans, so we needed a test that was suitable to them. Healthy mice and rats will burrow sand spontaneously – that is, they will burrow it of their own accord as it is a natural behaviour. However, when they are experiencing pain, they burrow less sand as the process of burrowing causes them discomfort/pain, and they may be feeling sick and be less motivated to burrow. I assessed this change in behaviour and then tested to see if the normal burrowing behaviour could be restored with drug treatments.
When developing new drugs to treat pain, rat/mouse models are often used. Having a behavioural test like the one I described is important as it assesses a natural behaviour. Similarly, when clinical trials (testing in humans) for new pain medications are conducted, the scientists will see if the new drug improves the patients’ daily lives, such as being able to walk comfortably or feeling happier. A drug that helps to restore a natural rat/mouse behaviour may be more likely to help restore natural human behaviour.
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Animal (fish, rat, mouse, pig, monkey) and humans have a surprising amount in common when it comes to their brains. I study a part of the brain called the basal ganglia, which is important for controlling our behavioural output. All the component parts are found in fish (such as the lamprey), mouse, rat, pig, monkey – and human! What is different is the size and complexity of the system. Humans/monkey have a more complex system as they have developed much more complex behaviours.
The biggest difference between humans and animals is the cortex. This is the outermost part of the brain that has the folded appearance you often see on pictures of the human brain (these folds are called gyri and sulci by the way. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sulcus_(neuroanatomy)). The cortex has expanded so much in humans over evolution that it has developed this folded structure in order to increase its surface area, meaning more of it can fit inside the skull! It is important for the behaviours that make us human, such as complex reasoning and decision making, as well as for speech and language processing.