Page 26 - Rappaport Institute Magazine 2024

BRAIN SCIENCE
Yoram Gutfreund, PhD Professor of Neurobiology
PhD, 1999 – The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel
Comparative Neurophysiology of Attention and Spatial Coordination
My research questions address the evolution and mechanisms of sensory- cognitive functions in the brain, adopting a comparative approach that focuses on bird species. Our approach is neuroethological, bridging behaviors with their neural basis. The current research explores brain mechanisms for selective attention and spatial coordination—two cognitive traits crucial to human well-being. We have identified remarkable parallels between bird and mammalian brain pathways governing these functions, indicating that the capacities for attention and spatial orientation may have emerged early in evolutionary history, well before the development of the neocortex. These discoveries provide new insights on cognitive evolution and pave the way for new research directions.
Selected Publications
ˆ Zahar Y*, Lev-Ari T*, Wagner H, Gutfreund Y. (2018) Behavioral evidence and neural correlates of perceptual grouping by motion in the barn owl. * Contributed equally. Journal of Neuroscience Jul 25;38(30). Presented in the journal cover page.
ˆ Ben-Yishay* E, Krivoruchko* K, Ron S, Ulanovsky N, Derdikman D, Gutfreund Y. (2021) Directional tuning in the hippocampal formation of birds. * Contributed equally. Current Biology, June 21; 31(12): P2592-26. Presented in the journal cover page. Chosen for an Editorial Dispatch article 31:PR781
ˆ Agarwal A, Sarel A, Derdikman D, Ulanovsky N and Gutfreund Y. (2023) Spatial coding in the hippocampus and hyperpallium of flying owls. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. Jan 31;120(5)
Grants and Awards
GIF – the German-Israel Foundation
BSF – the Binational Science Foundation
NSF National Science Foundation through a NSF-BSF research grant Collaborators
Prof. Jose Pena from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine
Prof. Henrik Mouritsen from the University of Oldenburg
Prof. Hermann Wagner from Aachen University
yoramg@technion.ac.il
Yoram Gutfruend Lab
This montage depicts a barn owl watching a screen display to test figure-ground segregation. The test consists of target dots arranged in an array. The dots move at different
levels of homogeneity creating patterns and backgrounds. Behavioral and neural recordings showed that the homogeneity of the motion allows distinguishing an object from its surround. The novel finding of such visual effects in a bird species, which lacks neocortical structure, suggests that our basic visual perception shares more universal principles across species than presently thought, and sheds light on possible brain mechanisms for perceptual grouping.