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
Perception of pain in simple nervous systems. Research over the past twenty years has revealed that cognitive behaviour in honeybees is much more sophisticated than hitherto assumed. The next frontier is to investigate whether these creatures are capable of experiencing pain. This study will measure the concentrations of biogenic amines and peptides in the haemolymph of injured honeybees, and the preferences of wounded individuals for pain killers to investigate whether bees are capable of exper ....Perception of pain in simple nervous systems. Research over the past twenty years has revealed that cognitive behaviour in honeybees is much more sophisticated than hitherto assumed. The next frontier is to investigate whether these creatures are capable of experiencing pain. This study will measure the concentrations of biogenic amines and peptides in the haemolymph of injured honeybees, and the preferences of wounded individuals for pain killers to investigate whether bees are capable of experiencing a sensation of pain. If the answer is positive, insects may provide new and simple models for the study of pain, and the results could lead to the formulation of guidelines for ethical experimentation with certain classes of invertebrates.Read moreRead less
A role for sleep in optimising attention. All animal brains are prediction machines, which allows even tiny flies to effectively navigate complex environments. To predict what will happen next is important for guiding attention, but also for detecting anything surprising. This project aims to understand how prediction is optimized by sleep in Drosophila flies. We aim to use electrophysiology and calcium imaging to map visual prediction error signals across the fly brain, and then determine how g ....A role for sleep in optimising attention. All animal brains are prediction machines, which allows even tiny flies to effectively navigate complex environments. To predict what will happen next is important for guiding attention, but also for detecting anything surprising. This project aims to understand how prediction is optimized by sleep in Drosophila flies. We aim to use electrophysiology and calcium imaging to map visual prediction error signals across the fly brain, and then determine how genetically controlled delivery of sleep regulates the quality and distribution of these signals. This knowledge will benefit our understanding of how brains balance a capacity for prediction versus surprise, by examining how evolution has solved this difficult problem in the smallest brains.Read moreRead less
Life or death decisions: making fast, accurate choices in a complex world. This project aims to understand how hoverflies and honey bees, with tiny brains and sensory systems, excel at making fast and accurate decisions while on the fly in a complex world. The project will combine brain recordings with flight analyses and computational modelling to generate new knowledge on how animals may utilize movements to simplify information sampling. Expected outcomes are a novel, comprehensive understand ....Life or death decisions: making fast, accurate choices in a complex world. This project aims to understand how hoverflies and honey bees, with tiny brains and sensory systems, excel at making fast and accurate decisions while on the fly in a complex world. The project will combine brain recordings with flight analyses and computational modelling to generate new knowledge on how animals may utilize movements to simplify information sampling. Expected outcomes are a novel, comprehensive understanding of how animal movements could enhance decision speed and accuracy. This should provide substantial benefits for neuroscience, and for enhancing performance of autonomous robotic systems operating in challenging environments, such as disaster relief, mining and remote exploration. Read moreRead less
Closing the loop between salience and brain activity. This project aims to understand how animals exposed to an abundance of highly complex information decide what to attend to, that is, how they determine visual saliency. The project will approach this question by systematically tracking visual decision-making in the smallest animal brains, in closed-loop virtual reality environment. This approach will uncover basic working principles applicable to any system that needs to pay attention in a vi ....Closing the loop between salience and brain activity. This project aims to understand how animals exposed to an abundance of highly complex information decide what to attend to, that is, how they determine visual saliency. The project will approach this question by systematically tracking visual decision-making in the smallest animal brains, in closed-loop virtual reality environment. This approach will uncover basic working principles applicable to any system that needs to pay attention in a visually cluttered world, from insects to humans or autonomous vehicles.Read moreRead less