Expanding evolutionary neuroscience: insights from comparing variation in behavior.

Neuroscientists have long studied species with convenient biological features to discover how behavior emerges from conserved molecular, neural, and circuit level processes. With the advent of new tools, from viral vectors and gene editing to automated behavioral analyses, there has been a recent wave of interest in developing new, "nontraditional" model species. Here, we advocate for a complementary approach to model species development, that is, model clade development, as a way to integrate an evolutionary comparative approach with neurobiological and behavioral experiments. Capitalizing on natural behavioral variation in and investing in experimental tools for model clades will be a valuable strategy for the next generation of neuroscience discovery. Jourjine and Hoekstra advocate for studying not just single species but also groups of species (clades) in behavioral neuroscience. They argue that integrating comparative and experimental approaches in "model clades" will help answer difficult questions about the mechanistic basis of behavioral variation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]