This week’s guest speaker Dr. Alice Powers gave us a talk on turtles. I was first confused about why the human brain is related to the turtles because in my impressions turtles are considered slow and lower intelligence. However, later on, I learned that they are actually smart, and according to Dr. Powers through learning about the brains of the turtles we humans can take a glance at how our brain has evolved over time. Turtles are amphibians and they are the divergent state between reptiles and mammals during the evolution process, so it is valuable to study their brain and how it differs from the human brain.
According to Dr. Powers, the turtles that were studied and experimented with are painted turtles. They are one of the most common species, and we also have them in Roth pond. They have cheeks with funny looks and patterns. Painted turtles also have really good visions, yet their hearings and smelling abilities are highly limited. I remember that in class we watched the video of the turtle doing the experiment of lighting up the horizontal stripes. Since the turtles like beef baby foods, they are rewarded by pressing the light that makes horizontal stripes. This experiment not only proved the good eyesight of the painted turtles but also that they have the learning abilities and brain functions.
Then Dr. Powers brought up the process of neurogenesis, which means the process of neurons is produced in the brain. Through studying the brain of the turtles, Dr. Powers concluded that the process of adult neurogenesis has probably involved plasticity since before the advent of mammals. To me, this is fascinating because knowing how different are human species are differs from the turtles and our brain has endured such a long period of evolvement, and we still shares similarity with our “ancestors of evolution.”