Brains in a Changing World: Insights from an Emerging Field

How do brains adapt to a changing planet? That question is driving a growing community of researchers at the intersection of neuroscience, ecology, and climate science. Together, they’re not only exploring how neural systems respond to environmental stress, but also shaping a new kind of science — one that connects brain, behavior, and environment to understand resilience in nature and ourselves.

This emerging area is a major focus of the Kavli Foundation’s neuroscience program. Earlier this year, the Foundation and the Paul G. Allen Frontiers Group convened scientists from across disciplines for a first-of-its-kind meeting, Neurobiology in Changing Environments, to exchange findings, share lessons learned, and pinpoint what’s needed to build this emerging field.

The group included senior leaders and early career scientists, many of whom are supported through Kavli Exploration Awards, Kavli–Grass Fellowships, and NSF-Kavli Neurobiology in Changing Ecosystems (NiCE) grants, along with other researchers eager to connect around these ideas. They are helping shape a new research ecosystem built on collaboration and openness, in which brains and behavior are not studied in isolation, but within the environments they evolved to navigate.

Four Insights from an Emerging Field

Here is a glimpse of where the field is heading and what it will take to sustain it. These insights, also captured in the report Neurobiology in Changing Environments: Field Notes from the Inaugural Symposium, reflect the priorities and possibilities shaping this new community.

1. Bringing the environment into neuroscience

Neuroscientists are designing experiments that mirror the variability of the real world through field studies and lab-based simulations of temperature, light, and other environmental extremes. This shift, away from narrowly controlled lab conditions, is broadening what counts as a model system, treating environmental variability not as noise but as data that can reveal how neural systems adapt.

2. Looking beyond model organisms

Neuroscientists are expanding beyond traditional model species to study how diverse organisms — from crabs to bees to cephalopods — adapt to their environments. By comparing diverse species, research is uncovering shared neural strategies for resilience and connecting changes at the molecular level to behaviors in the wild.

3. Connecting data across scales

Researchers are beginning to integrate data on genes, neural activity, physiology, and behavior with environmental variables such as temperature and pH. This allows scientists to trace adaptation across scales. New tools and shared data platforms are helping to bridge these layers of information, linking neurobiology with ecology.

4. Building a new kind of community

What began as small meetings and pilot projects is becoming a coordinated effort. Online hubs, open data frameworks, and interdisciplinary collaborations are giving this field both its identity and forward momentum. To keep the momentum, scientists emphasized the need for shared datasets, comparative tools, and training opportunities that link ecology and neuroscience.

The Field Notes report offers a snapshot of a field in motion. The next chapter is already taking shape — in labs, in the field, and in the collaborations that are expanding what neuroscience can study and explain.

Read the report: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_TJbICHcD-pms7NA6lZkVTn05b-paHAu/view?usp=sharing ;