Organization and Plasticity of Visual Processing in a Miniature Brain. To recognise objects a brain must have an internal representation of most likely object appearance. Two ways in which brains may posses this information include a hard wired template system, and/or the neuroplasticity to learn novel objects. Recent investigations on honeybee vision show that this animal can learn to recognise very difficult objects, although currently we do not know how the miniaturised bee brain manages thes ....Organization and Plasticity of Visual Processing in a Miniature Brain. To recognise objects a brain must have an internal representation of most likely object appearance. Two ways in which brains may posses this information include a hard wired template system, and/or the neuroplasticity to learn novel objects. Recent investigations on honeybee vision show that this animal can learn to recognise very difficult objects, although currently we do not know how the miniaturised bee brain manages these tasks. This project will reveal changes that occur in the processing of visual objects by the bee's brain with increasing experience, with potential applications including robotics or building interfaces between sensors and biological systems.Read moreRead less
Mobile computation in human perception and feature binding. Perception is so complex that still we cannot give computers more than a fraction of the human ability to perceive things. Experiments with humans can unravel the computations that underlie human abilities. Here we focus on distinguishing between perceptual mechanisms that analyze information from only patches of the visual world and those that combine information from across the visual field as an object moves across it. Results should ....Mobile computation in human perception and feature binding. Perception is so complex that still we cannot give computers more than a fraction of the human ability to perceive things. Experiments with humans can unravel the computations that underlie human abilities. Here we focus on distinguishing between perceptual mechanisms that analyze information from only patches of the visual world and those that combine information from across the visual field as an object moves across it. Results should also help to understand the general issue of how the brain combines information from different groups of neurons. Australian understanding of brains should be advanced, benefiting neuroscience, medicine, and eventually computer science.Read moreRead less
Processing of social communication calls in primate auditory cortex. This research will advance our understanding of the brain mechanisms involved in perception of sound. This will help to understand disorders of speech and hearing following brain damage and may assist in efforts to develop better hearing aids, as well as other speech recognition technologies. In addition, we will develop a primate for studying processing of sound in the brain that will be useful in future research to develop ....Processing of social communication calls in primate auditory cortex. This research will advance our understanding of the brain mechanisms involved in perception of sound. This will help to understand disorders of speech and hearing following brain damage and may assist in efforts to develop better hearing aids, as well as other speech recognition technologies. In addition, we will develop a primate for studying processing of sound in the brain that will be useful in future research to develop improved cochlear implants.Read moreRead less
Probing cross modal interactions in the perception of object motion and self-motion. How the brain integrates information from the different senses is not yet understood. This project aims first, to uncover how the brain integrates sound and visual information when perceiving moving objects and second, to probe more complex sensory interactions between sound, vision, and our vestibular senses when perceiving self-motion. This project will expand Australia's knowledge base, strengthen collabora ....Probing cross modal interactions in the perception of object motion and self-motion. How the brain integrates information from the different senses is not yet understood. This project aims first, to uncover how the brain integrates sound and visual information when perceiving moving objects and second, to probe more complex sensory interactions between sound, vision, and our vestibular senses when perceiving self-motion. This project will expand Australia's knowledge base, strengthen collaborative ties between Australia and Japan, and provide unique training opportunities for Australian and Japanese students. Publication of research in top-ranking journals will further promote Australian science abroad. Results will lead to improvements in the design of human-machine interfaces in both industry and entertainment.Read moreRead less
How do bees orchestrate smooth landings? The results should pave the way for the development of novel, biologically inspired strategies for the control of landing in unmanned aerial vehicles. Endowing aircraft with the capability of autonomous flight and landing has been a major challenge in engineering technology. There is now considerable interest, nationally and world wide, in the development of small, intelligent, autonomous airborne vehicles for application in a number of areas of defense, ....How do bees orchestrate smooth landings? The results should pave the way for the development of novel, biologically inspired strategies for the control of landing in unmanned aerial vehicles. Endowing aircraft with the capability of autonomous flight and landing has been a major challenge in engineering technology. There is now considerable interest, nationally and world wide, in the development of small, intelligent, autonomous airborne vehicles for application in a number of areas of defense, surveillance and space exploration. The proposed research will help Australia maintain a leading edge in uncovering important biological principles of flight control that can be translated into useful technological applications.Read moreRead less
Honeybee Navigation: Low-level and Cognitive Mechanisms. Anyone watching a honeybee find its way back home effortlessly after flying several kilometres in search of nectar would know that these insects are excellent navigators, despite their diminutive brains and relatively simple nervous systems. The aim of this proposal is to gain a better understanding of the mechanisms by which bees navigate repeatedly to an attractive food source, and recruit their nestmates to visit it. The findings should ....Honeybee Navigation: Low-level and Cognitive Mechanisms. Anyone watching a honeybee find its way back home effortlessly after flying several kilometres in search of nectar would know that these insects are excellent navigators, despite their diminutive brains and relatively simple nervous systems. The aim of this proposal is to gain a better understanding of the mechanisms by which bees navigate repeatedly to an attractive food source, and recruit their nestmates to visit it. The findings should illuminate important principles of animal navigation, as well as suggest novel strategies for robot navigation.Read moreRead less
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE0452971
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$102,900.00
Summary
Optical imaging of brain activity: Studies of the neural basis of sensory perception, plasticity and behaviour. Basic to the understanding of the brain is to know how the overall architecture of the nervous system relates to its function. We propose to study this by directly visualising the regions that are functionally active in the living brains of animals, down to resolution limits of less than 100 micrometres. Such "optical imaging" will be done by recording light reflected from the surfac ....Optical imaging of brain activity: Studies of the neural basis of sensory perception, plasticity and behaviour. Basic to the understanding of the brain is to know how the overall architecture of the nervous system relates to its function. We propose to study this by directly visualising the regions that are functionally active in the living brains of animals, down to resolution limits of less than 100 micrometres. Such "optical imaging" will be done by recording light reflected from the surface of the brain, which in turn depends upon activity-dependent intrinsic signals (eg. degree of oxygenation of haemoglobin). These signals will be recorded by a special camera and amplified using the requested system.Read moreRead less
Colour visual processing by honeybees: solutions for decision making in complex environments. Honeybees are a cost and time efficient animal model for testing how information is processed in a miniature brain containing less than 0.01% of the number of cells found in a human brain. Bees use their ultraviolet, blue and green colour vision to efficiently find flowers in complex environments. This project investigates how colour information is processed by bees, and develops computer models to eval ....Colour visual processing by honeybees: solutions for decision making in complex environments. Honeybees are a cost and time efficient animal model for testing how information is processed in a miniature brain containing less than 0.01% of the number of cells found in a human brain. Bees use their ultraviolet, blue and green colour vision to efficiently find flowers in complex environments. This project investigates how colour information is processed by bees, and develops computer models to evaluate how novel solutions might be applicable for robotic vision. The model also allows for testing of how environmental factors, like changes in climate, might affect the way in which bees choose to visit certain flower types, including plants that have important environmental and economic impacts.Read moreRead less
Understanding how the primate brain processes visual information. Being able to see is a crucial aspect of our daily lives, which happens so effortlessly that it tends to be taken for granted. In comparison with other animals and artificial systems, the primate visual cortex is unsurpassed in its capacity to interpret complex and dynamic environments, in a manner that is fast and computationally robust. Discovering how this happens in terms of interactions between cells in the brain can help us ....Understanding how the primate brain processes visual information. Being able to see is a crucial aspect of our daily lives, which happens so effortlessly that it tends to be taken for granted. In comparison with other animals and artificial systems, the primate visual cortex is unsurpassed in its capacity to interpret complex and dynamic environments, in a manner that is fast and computationally robust. Discovering how this happens in terms of interactions between cells in the brain can help us design more efficient artificial systems capable of vision. This in turn can have profound implications for the creation of new technologies such as artificial eyes, autonomous robots, and intelligent sensors, and may also result in future benefits for medical science.Read moreRead less
Are there advantages in having a lateralized brain? Specialisation of the left and right hemispheres of the brain to process different information and to control different responses is not, as once thought, unique to humans but common to all vertebrates. In fact, the same general pattern of lateralization occurs in amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals. Until now, it has been important to document the presence and nature of lateralization in different species. Now it is important to discover t ....Are there advantages in having a lateralized brain? Specialisation of the left and right hemispheres of the brain to process different information and to control different responses is not, as once thought, unique to humans but common to all vertebrates. In fact, the same general pattern of lateralization occurs in amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals. Until now, it has been important to document the presence and nature of lateralization in different species. Now it is important to discover the advantages (and disadvantages) of having a lateralized brain. This project will do so using two model species, the chick and the marmoset, and new techniques to measure behaviour.Read moreRead less