Baku, July 20, AZERTAC Israeli scientists have uncovered a surprising way the brain maintains reliable behavior in a changing environment: instead of correcting disruptions caused by temperature, it changes its own internal timing, according to TPS-IL.Researchers from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem found that tiny zebrafish can hunt with the same precision in cold water as in warm water, even though temperature directly affects the speed of their brains and movements. The discovery reveals a new principle of how biological systems remain stable: they do not always preserve the same internal activity. Instead, they can adjust their timing while keeping the outcome unchanged.The study, led by Dr. Lilach Avitan and PhD student Shai Tishby Tamari from Hebrew Univerity’s Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences (ELSC) identified a mechanism called neural temporal scaling. This process allows the brain to speed up or slow down its activity while preserving the computations needed for survival. The findings were published in the peer-reviewed Nature Communications.Scientists have long known that temperature affects biological processes, including brain activity. However, it was unclear how animals maintain precise behavior when those changes alter the speed at which their nervous systems operate.The researchers studied larval zebrafish, small transparent fish whose brains can be observed in detail while they perform natural behaviors. Zebrafish were especially useful because they naturally experience temperature changes in their environments.The team tested the fish across a 10-degree Celsius temperature range and found that their hunting performance remained stable. In warmer water, the fish moved faster, with quicker tail movements and shorter pauses. In colder water, their movements slowed.Despite these changes, the fish continued to accurately track and capture prey. The distance they traveled and the angles of their movements remained nearly identical across temperatures.The researchers then examined the fish brains to understand how this stability was achieved. Using advanced two-photon calcium imaging, they recorded activity across the brain while the animals hunted.They discovered that temperature did not disrupt the brain’s ability to process information. Instead, it changed the speed of neural activity in a coordinated way.At higher temperatures, neurons responded faster. At lower temperatures, they responded more slowly. But the structure of the neural activity remained intact, allowing the brain to continue accurately representing the location of prey.The researchers found this timing adjustment across multiple levels of the nervous system, from individual neurons to brain networks involved in processing visual information and controlling movement.Dr. Avitan told TPS-IL that the most surprising finding was that the fish did not appear to rely on a separate system that actively corrected temperature-related changes.“Temperature strongly affects biological processes in the brain and body, yet the system can still preserve precise behavior when that behavior is critical for survival,” Avitan told TPS-IL. “This changed our understanding of robustness in the brain. Rather than depending only on dedicated compensatory mechanisms, robustness can also emerge from simple, built-in properties of the system that automatically preserve function under changing conditions.”The study also found that the brain does not maintain all behaviors equally. While hunting remained highly accurate across temperatures, other behaviors, such as exploration, changed more noticeably.Avitan told TPS-IL that this suggests the brain selectively preserves stability where it is most important.“For the animal to survive, it must be able to execute hunting behavior with high precision across different environmental conditions,” she said. “What is striking is that this robustness appears to be selective: it is maintained for a survival-critical behavior such as hunting, but not to the same extent for other behaviors such as exploration.”The researchers believe similar principles may exist in other animals. Although mammals regulate body temperature differently from fish, their brains also operate under changing conditions and may use related strategies to maintain reliable function.Avitan told TPS-IL that this principle could eventually help guide the design of more adaptable technologies.“Robustness does not always require rigidly preserving the same internal dynamics,” she said. “Instead, function can be maintained by appropriately adjusting timing across the system.”The findings may provide a new design principle for future technologies. The zebrafish brain suggests an alternative approach for artificial intelligence systems, robots, and neuromorphic computers, leading to more adaptable drones, robots, and computing systems that continue to function reliably in changing environments.Beyond technology, the study may also help scientists understand how living organisms cope with environmental challenges. While the research was conducted in fish, it raises new questions about whether similar principles help mammals, including humans, maintain stable behavior under changing conditions.The researchers are now studying how the brain determines which behaviors must remain stable and which can be allowed to change.“This study helped explain how robustness can be achieved, but it also opened a new set of questions,” Avitan told TPS-IL. “We now want to understand those computations more directly.”