Early stress experiences and stress resilience in pigs. Animal stress has substantial implications on animal productivity, health and welfare of farm animals and thus farm profitability. This project aims to examine the stress resilience in pigs. Modern pig farming is a major source of food, providing substantial nutritional, social and economic benefits in Australia and worldwide. Animal welfare is of increasing concern to the public, consumers and pork producers, and stress vulnerability is an ....Early stress experiences and stress resilience in pigs. Animal stress has substantial implications on animal productivity, health and welfare of farm animals and thus farm profitability. This project aims to examine the stress resilience in pigs. Modern pig farming is a major source of food, providing substantial nutritional, social and economic benefits in Australia and worldwide. Animal welfare is of increasing concern to the public, consumers and pork producers, and stress vulnerability is an animal health and production problem in the life of the commercial pig. This project will generate new knowledge on early life management to endow stress resilience in pigs, with expected benefits for animal welfare, farm productivity and profitability.Read moreRead less
Cerebellar control of classical conditioning. This project proposes to use zebrafish, in combination with optogenetics, to identify and test patterns of neural activity that are responsible for classical conditioning. It will do this by describing the connections between the cerebellum and other brain regions, and by observing patterns of neural activity as learning takes place. Next, the project will block or recreate these patterns of activity to see whether they are necessary or sufficient fo ....Cerebellar control of classical conditioning. This project proposes to use zebrafish, in combination with optogenetics, to identify and test patterns of neural activity that are responsible for classical conditioning. It will do this by describing the connections between the cerebellum and other brain regions, and by observing patterns of neural activity as learning takes place. Next, the project will block or recreate these patterns of activity to see whether they are necessary or sufficient for learning. The goal is to describe, in concrete terms, how patterns of neural activity in this part of the brain result in learning. In so doing, the project also aims to develop and test new technologies and approaches for studying the functioning brain.Read moreRead less
Cerebellar control of motor coordination and learning. The cerebellum is the part of the brain responsible for smooth body movements, but many details of how it works are still unclear. This project is aimed at learning how the cerebellum communicates with the rest of the brain, and what parts of this communication are necessary for coordinated movement.
Neural mechanisms of motor learning. The cerebellum is the part of the brain responsible for smooth body movements, but many details of how it works are still unclear. This project is aimed at learning how the cerebellum communicates with the rest of the brain, and what parts of this communication are necessary for coordinated movement.
Evolution of intelligence in small brains: how to navigate the messy natural outdoors smartly. This project unravels how small-brained desert ants navigate expertly using simple and coarse-grade visual cues, focusing on 1) how they use skylines, where the tops of terrestrial objects meet the sky, and 2) how they search efficiently for goals. The outcomes will be invaluable for designing robots that can navigate in the messy natural outdoors.
Becoming expert navigators with tiny brains: Learning in desert ants. Desert ants with tiny brains learn to use their surrounding visual landscape to navigate. This project investigates in detail how they do that in a few carefully orchestrated trips around their nest called learning walks. Desert ants are known now to use magnetic cues to orient during their learning walks. The project also probes the role that magnetic cues play in the ants’ learning, as well as the sensory basis of the percep ....Becoming expert navigators with tiny brains: Learning in desert ants. Desert ants with tiny brains learn to use their surrounding visual landscape to navigate. This project investigates in detail how they do that in a few carefully orchestrated trips around their nest called learning walks. Desert ants are known now to use magnetic cues to orient during their learning walks. The project also probes the role that magnetic cues play in the ants’ learning, as well as the sensory basis of the perception of magnetic cues. Geomagnetic cues in the area of the nest will be artificially manipulated to test how ants use this cue. Probing the use of magnetic cues has potential benefits for projects of artificial autonomous navigation in situations when visual cues are unavailable, such as exploring a deep mine.
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Mapping a complete visual circuit in zebrafish. Our senses perceive the outside world and permit appropriate behaviours, but the underlying brain circuits are poorly understood. This project will use new technologies to observe all active brain cells in zebrafish during the important behaviour of visual predator avoidance and characterise the underlying circuits comprehensively. This approach's significance is in its breadth, spanning functional imaging, anatomy, computational modelling, and beh ....Mapping a complete visual circuit in zebrafish. Our senses perceive the outside world and permit appropriate behaviours, but the underlying brain circuits are poorly understood. This project will use new technologies to observe all active brain cells in zebrafish during the important behaviour of visual predator avoidance and characterise the underlying circuits comprehensively. This approach's significance is in its breadth, spanning functional imaging, anatomy, computational modelling, and behaviour, with the major outcome of producing the first complete map of a visual behaviour at the level of brain circuits and the individual brain cells composing them. Benefits will include new insights into visual processing and the refinement of new genetic, optical, and informatics approaches.Read moreRead less
Neural mechanisms of vestibular perception in zebrafish. This project aims to understand vestibular processing by removing physical movement. The vestibular system allows us to perceive gravity and movement, but it is not understood how the brain processes information from vestibular sensors in the inner ear. This project will exert forces on the zebrafish’s inner ear with a laser, stimulating the vestibular sense. This means that the animal will experience vestibular stimuli while stationary, a ....Neural mechanisms of vestibular perception in zebrafish. This project aims to understand vestibular processing by removing physical movement. The vestibular system allows us to perceive gravity and movement, but it is not understood how the brain processes information from vestibular sensors in the inner ear. This project will exert forces on the zebrafish’s inner ear with a laser, stimulating the vestibular sense. This means that the animal will experience vestibular stimuli while stationary, allowing calcium imaging of neurons that respond to vestibular cues and optogenetics to stimulate or silence these neurons. This is expected to reveal which cells and circuits mediate vestibular perception, processing and behaviour.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE120100019
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$375,000.00
Summary
Miniaturisation: sensory limitations and navigational competence. Body size in most animals correlates with behavioural competence, brain capacity and sensory receptors. But since the navigational challenges faced by animals both big and small are similar, this project aims to identify the sensory and behavioural costs of miniaturisation and the strategies animals have evolved to cope with it.
Neuronal Control of Adaptive Walking. This project seeks to understand how signals from the brain control motor circuits so that an animal can adaptively walk across varying terrains in pursuit of its ever-changing goals. It will focus on the fruit fly, Drosophila, as a model. The fly is an agile walker, its nervous system has been almost fully mapped at the synaptic level, and genetic reagents are available to selectively measure or manipulate the activity of single neurons. This project specif ....Neuronal Control of Adaptive Walking. This project seeks to understand how signals from the brain control motor circuits so that an animal can adaptively walk across varying terrains in pursuit of its ever-changing goals. It will focus on the fruit fly, Drosophila, as a model. The fly is an agile walker, its nervous system has been almost fully mapped at the synaptic level, and genetic reagents are available to selectively measure or manipulate the activity of single neurons. This project specifically focuses on the circuits that generate forward and backward walking, and switch between the two. It will enhance Australia's capacity in connectome-driven neuroscience research, deliver fundamental insights into neuronal motor control, and inspire the design of more agile robots.Read moreRead less