Social cues that drive animal exploration

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 can
induce approach or avoidance responses in mice (1,5) and chicks (2, 3), and that some
geometric configurations are more attractive than others (e.g. 4). Recently, we have
developed new software that allows us to use deep neural networks to track an animal and
update its visual environment in real time. This new technology allows the presentation of
visual objects that are responsive to an animal's actions.
The student will test the hypothesis that responsiveness attracts attention to an object and
therefore guides exploration behaviour. We expect that some forms of responsiveness will
increase the drive to approach an object while others will increase the drive to avoid it. To
test this hypothesis, the student will first conduct the same behavioural measurements in two
very different animals - mammal (mice) and bird (chicks), both of which show instinctive
exploration or avoidance of novel objects. This will provide knowledge of how social cues
guide 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 perform
brain-wide analysis of immediate early gene activation, comparing activation patterns during
social exploration, and sensory-matched unsocial exploration. These measurements will be
used to guide viral-based calcium imaging, and/or electrophysiological measurements, in
freely-moving animals. We expect that responsiveness will induce modest changes in activity
in 'sensory' brain areas, but much stronger differences in association areas of the cerebral
cortex and their targets in the mid-brain. Time permitting, the student will also target these
brain areas for causal manipulation using virus-mediated expression of designer receptors.