Biological intelligence: how we learn, predict and decide | The Royal Society

Learning, predicting, and deciding are fundamental brain functions essential for survival across the animal kingdom. Despite decades of investigation, we do not understand the rules governing biological intelligence. A major obstacle to progress has been the inability to determine the architecture of the circuits that implement these functions and to relate the architectural motifs to their function.

This is the Francis Crick Lecture 2020 delivered by Dr Marta Zlatic

To overcome this obstacle Dr Zlatic's team have established the Drosophila larva as a powerful genetic model system, ideally suited for relating the structure of neural circuits to their function. In this system it is possible to map circuits with synaptic resolution and to record and manipulate the activity of uniquely identified neurons to determine their roles in behaviour.

Using functional imaging and behavioural experiments, the team is identifying neurons and circuit motifs that regulate learning, compute predicted values, and select actions. In this talk, Dr Zlatic discussed the key findings from these studies and her team’s ongoing work to elucidate the basic principles by which brains learn, predict, and decide.

Thumbnail mages courtesy of MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Michael Winding, Marta Zlatic (Francis Crick medallist 2020) and Albert Cardona.

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