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.
Read moreRead less
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
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
Overcoming limits of miniaturisation to enhance spatial memory capacities. Ensuring optimal efficiency at the smallest possible physical limit is a challenge for technical systems, which has been elegantly solved by biological systems. This project aims to identify how insects with miniature brains enhance their memory capacities. It will leverage previous ARC funded research on navigation of Australian ants and apply sophisticated analytical tools to quantify the neural connectivity in the brai ....Overcoming limits of miniaturisation to enhance spatial memory capacities. Ensuring optimal efficiency at the smallest possible physical limit is a challenge for technical systems, which has been elegantly solved by biological systems. This project aims to identify how insects with miniature brains enhance their memory capacities. It will leverage previous ARC funded research on navigation of Australian ants and apply sophisticated analytical tools to quantify the neural connectivity in the brain in the context of spatial memory. Expected outcomes include understanding how expensive neural tissue can be miniaturised for efficient spatial navigation, identifying the consequences of miniaturisation for developing miniature and autonomous agents, enhancing research capacity and institutional collaborations.Read moreRead less
Beyond pineal melatonin: sensing the seasons without the eye. The project will identify the causal connection between seasonal breeding in animals and a recently recognised brain biochemical pathway by applying experimental treatments mimicking seasonal environmental changes in a mutant and wild-type nematode worm model. Through experimentation we will identify useful biological targets that might be manipulated to enhance control of seasonal breeding in managed animals. With better control of r ....Beyond pineal melatonin: sensing the seasons without the eye. The project will identify the causal connection between seasonal breeding in animals and a recently recognised brain biochemical pathway by applying experimental treatments mimicking seasonal environmental changes in a mutant and wild-type nematode worm model. Through experimentation we will identify useful biological targets that might be manipulated to enhance control of seasonal breeding in managed animals. With better control of reproductive output in animals, farmers and managers can increase and/or decrease reproductive output as needed in managed species including livestock and vertebrate pests. This will enhance the use of precious land resources and minimize ecological damage from overbreeding.Read moreRead less
Polarization vision: insights from biological systems for imaging solutions. This project aims to discover how invertebrate and vertebrate model species see linearly polarised light by constructing a novel instrument to determine limits to sensitivities, as well as animals' ability to distinguish small differences in degree and angle of linear polarisation. The project aims to predict how this might be affected as environments change. A clear understanding of biological solutions to polarisation ....Polarization vision: insights from biological systems for imaging solutions. This project aims to discover how invertebrate and vertebrate model species see linearly polarised light by constructing a novel instrument to determine limits to sensitivities, as well as animals' ability to distinguish small differences in degree and angle of linear polarisation. The project aims to predict how this might be affected as environments change. A clear understanding of biological solutions to polarisation perception can inform the design and development of novel bio-inspired imaging sensors that will be particularly suited to small, autonomous robots.Read moreRead less
Action selection in insects: how a microbrain knows what to do. Identifying what to do demands integrating sensory information with our current physiological state and memory of past experience to select the best possible action. This is the action selection problem. Our project aims to discover how tiny insect brains solve this fundamental problem. The project combines neural recordings from animals exploring virtual reality, behavioural analyses and computational modelling. The expected outco ....Action selection in insects: how a microbrain knows what to do. Identifying what to do demands integrating sensory information with our current physiological state and memory of past experience to select the best possible action. This is the action selection problem. Our project aims to discover how tiny insect brains solve this fundamental problem. The project combines neural recordings from animals exploring virtual reality, behavioural analyses and computational modelling. The expected outcome is a new understanding of the brain as an effective behavioural control system. This will benefit systems and comparative neuroscience. Our findings may also inspire solutions for robotic systems that must operate autonomously in remote and challenging environments such as disaster relief or exploration.Read moreRead less
Quantifying environmental constraints on animal behaviour. This project aims to determine how habitat structure, weather and motion vision influence animal behaviour. Motion vision controls locomotion, foraging, evading predators and communicating. However, information on the conditions for motion vision in natural environments is limited. To address this, this project will combine field techniques with tools from 3D animation and computer vision. The project will focus on Australia’s dragon liz ....Quantifying environmental constraints on animal behaviour. This project aims to determine how habitat structure, weather and motion vision influence animal behaviour. Motion vision controls locomotion, foraging, evading predators and communicating. However, information on the conditions for motion vision in natural environments is limited. To address this, this project will combine field techniques with tools from 3D animation and computer vision. The project will focus on Australia’s dragon lizards, and place their motion displays in a visual-ecological context. The expected outcome is a more complete picture of the signalling context, which could advance sensory ecology, vision science and animal behaviour, with practical applications in artificial intelligence and derived benefits for education and community engagement in biology.Read moreRead less
Understanding How the Hungry Brain Regulates Metabolism. Energy homeostasis is essential for life as it ensures an adequate supply of fuel to cells of the body. This process is orchestrated by neurons in the hypothalamus of the brain. This project aims to determine the role of the extracellular matrix that surrounds hypothalamic neurons and how this regulates energy homeostasis, an area of science that is completely unexplored. This project expects to identify the composition the extracellular m ....Understanding How the Hungry Brain Regulates Metabolism. Energy homeostasis is essential for life as it ensures an adequate supply of fuel to cells of the body. This process is orchestrated by neurons in the hypothalamus of the brain. This project aims to determine the role of the extracellular matrix that surrounds hypothalamic neurons and how this regulates energy homeostasis, an area of science that is completely unexplored. This project expects to identify the composition the extracellular matrix within the hypothalamus and discover how it regulates energy homeostasis. The outcomes of this project are to provide new knowledge in understanding how the brain regulates metabolism, to promote population health & wellbeing, develop new technologies and training the next generation of researchers.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