Ian Lawn, Neurobiologist: Anemone Nervous System

Ian Lawn is interested in the origin of behaviors. He studies an anemone, Stomphia, to try to understand how an animal with a simple body plan and nervous system is capable of complex behavior. Underwater we see Stomphia free itself from a rock and swim away to escape from a predatory sea star. In the lab Lawn conducts experiments to record the nerve activity of feeding and escape behavior. His recordings reveal that the same nerves are firing more rapidly when the animal detachers from the rock and swims than when the animal feeds.