Invertebrates have always been the reductionist neuroscientist’s favorite. After all, are their nervous systems not simpler, their behavior not more stereotyped and reproducible than those of vertebrates, unfettered by cognition, and intelligence which would only serve to complicate the already tricky study of how neurons do the things they do? Until not too long ago, neurobiological study of i...

The Research Topic presented in this issue of Frontiers in Invertebrate Physiology is on Plasticity in Invertebrate Sensory Systems and comprises a total of eight articles. These cover various aspects of sensory plasticity observed not only at the level of neurons but also in behavioral adaptations that result from plastic changes in the nervous system. Neuronal plasticity has been reported in ...

I was introduced to neurobiology, first by Don Kennedy, a great role model as a brilliant teacher-researcher, and later by Don Wilson, the genius behind the role of central rhythm generators in behavior. Kennedy and Wilson showed how much we have to learn about brains from studying the brain and behavior of invertebrate animals. Eric Kandel, Seymour Benzer, and Sydney Brenner inspired many of u...

Genetic analysis of nociceptive behaviors in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans and the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster has led to the discovery of conserved sensory transduction channels and signaling molecules. These are embedded in neurons and circuits that generate responses to noxious signals. This article reviews the neurons and molecular mechanisms that underlie invertebrate nocicepti...

Recent work on Drosophila has provided new insights into how insulin signalling - conserved in mammals, flies and worms - regulates growth and cell division during development. Invertebrates have been found to possess more insulin-like ligands than predicted, some of which behave as receptor antagonists.

Freshwater invertebrate conservation faces 5 important challenges. First, ;10,000 species of freshwater invertebrates around the world may already be extinct or imperiled. Second, human pressures on freshwater resources are intense and will increase in the coming decades, putting yet more species at risk. Third, scientific knowledge about freshwater invertebrates, although substantial and usefu...