Social cues that drive animal exploration

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This project brings together supervisors who are experts in sensory neuroscience (Solomon)and animal behaviour (Versace). It builds on work from that shows that simple 2D objects caninduce approach or avoidance responses in mice (1,5) and chicks (2, 3), and that somegeometric configurations are more attractive than others (e.g. 4). Recently, we havedeveloped new software that allows us to use deep neural networks to track an animal andupdate its visual environment in real time. This new technology allows the presentation ofvisual objects that are responsive to an animal's actions.The student will test the hypothesis that responsiveness attracts attention to an object andtherefore guides exploration behaviour. We expect that some forms of responsiveness willincrease the drive to approach an object while others will increase the drive to avoid it. Totest this hypothesis, the student will first conduct the same behavioural measurements in twovery different animals - mammal (mice) and bird (chicks), both of which show instinctiveexploration or avoidance of novel objects. This will provide knowledge of how social cuesguide exploration across taxa, and thus a better understanding of their adaptive value.To understand how these social cues influence brain activity the student will first performbrain-wide analysis of immediate early gene activation, comparing activation patterns duringsocial exploration, and sensory-matched unsocial exploration. These measurements will beused to guide viral-based calcium imaging, and/or electrophysiological measurements, infreely-moving animals. We expect that responsiveness will induce modest changes in activityin 'sensory' brain areas, but much stronger differences in association areas of the cerebralcortex and their targets in the mid-brain. Time permitting, the student will also target thesebrain areas for causal manipulation using virus-mediated expression of designer receptors.