Invertebrate brains as model systems for learning, memory, and recall: development, anatomy and function of memory systems

A fundamental scientific problem of our time is to understand how memory systems integrate present sensory stimuli, past experience, and future behavioural options. Modern neuroscience tries to understand how adaptive behaviour is organized through the properties of single neurons, their synapses, and the neural circuits the neurons are part of. However, for a more complete understanding of the fundamental principles underlying learning, memory formation and memory recall, an across-level analysis from molecules to behavior is required. For such an endeavour, the nervous systems and behavior of invertebrates are particularly suitable. Arthropods and mollusks as model organisms combine brain simplicity, behavioural richness, and experimental accessibility. Moreover, invertebrate brains can serve as paradigmatic study cases of how brains in general, including those of vertebrates, function.

How do brains integrate present sensory stimuli, past experience, and future behavioural options? We want to make accessible, to a broad readership, the answers that have recently been emerging form a diversity of invertebrate organisms. In the proposed special edition, we would like to collect and summarize work on the evolution, structure, development, plasticity and behavioural function of neuronal circuits in invertebrate brains that mediate adaptive plasticity, learning and memory recall. Studies on different model and non-model invertebrate species will be included and approaches from diverse disciplines such as neuroanatomy, neuroethology, learning psychology, computational modelling, connectomics or neurophysiology will be covered.

We invite contributions on all aspects of the evolution, development, structure and function of invertebrate brains in the context of learning, memory and recall. These may include:
- Evolution of memory systems
- Behavioral functions of memory systems in social insects such as termites, hymenoptera, non-social insects, mollusks and other invertebrates.
- Development of memory systems at the anatomical, cellular, molecular and functional level.
- Neurophysiological insights from, e.g., optical imaging, optogenetics, electrophysiology or pharmacology, to the function of memory systems.
- Behavioral studies of adaptive behavior
- Studies on how memory systems are integrated with multisensory processing and metabolic signals.
- Molecular and genetic analyses of memory systems
- Computational models of memory systems

We welcome submissions of diverse article types to this collection, including reviews, mini-reviews, and original research papers. See the Invertebrate Physiology section for a full list of the types of articles that can be considered.