Neural algorithms underlying higher cognitive function (i.e. learning, memonry, spatial navigation, social cognition) are constrained by developmental processes that have shaped our brains across evolution from lower vertebrates to mammals. In WP3, we will identify these processes, to translate knowledge generated in earlier WPs on animal models to humans, and to determine the principles underlying functions in the vertebrate brain across species. We will investigate how developmental processes in mammals form cortical circuits (WP3AB, P1-3), how distributed networks are coordinated and modulated by sensory experience and learning across the ertebrate clade (WP3B-D, P3,4), and how circuits and algorithms are conserved (or diverge) as the result of evelopment and evolution (WP3A-D, P3,4). Brain-wide functional imaging methods available for both ebrafish and humans will make it possible to compare these processes across cortical areas. It will be essential to dissect cortical circuits and algorithms across species to understand the building blocks of human cognition.