Turtles' brains shed light on evolutionary developments dating back hundreds of millions of years

A new study from the School of Neurobiology, Biochemistry, and Biophysics reveals a surprising insight into the operation of the ancestral brain: the visual cortex of turtles is capable of detecting unexpected visual stimuli in a way that is independent of their position on the retina, a property that, until now, was thought to exist only in the highly developed cortices of mammals, including humans. In light of these findings, the research team assesses that advanced brain mechanisms previously thought to be unique to mammals were already present hundreds of millions of years ago.