Auditory and visual perception of animals CALL 2024

The overall goal of this research topic is to obtain a deeper understanding of auditory and visual perceptual processes in dogs. This will include the development and use of behavioral tests to characterize dogs’ responses to a variety of visual and auditory stimuli. The research activity will also entail the determination of physiological parameters (e.g. heart-rate, hormone levels, superficial temperature) and the development and use of innovative functional brain imaging techniques (e.g. fNIRS), which will be instrumental to provide a better understanding of the neuro-physiological mechanisms underlying perception and behavior. The research will also potentially be extended to other phylogenetically distant species of vertebrates, including for instance fish species, to shed light on the phylogenesis of the same aspects.

Five publications related to the Research Topic for the candidate interview: 

  1. Gelfand S.A. Psychoacoustic Methods. In Hearing: An Introduction to Psychological and Physiological Acoustics, 5th ed.; Informa Healthcare: London, UK, 2009; pp. 146–159. Available online: http://zhenilo.narod.ru/main/students/Gelfand.pdf (last accessed on 24 January 2024).
  2. Pinti P, Tachtsidis I, Hamilton A, Hirsch J, Aichelburg C, Gilbert S, Burgess PW (2020) The present and future use of functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) for cognitive neuroscience. Ann N Y Acad Sci. 1464(1), 5-29. doi: 10.1111/nyas.13948.
  3. Winters S, Dubuc C, Higham JP (2015) Perspectives: the looking time experimental paradigm in studies of animal visual perception and cognition. Ethology 121, 625-640. doi: 10. 1111/ eth. 12378
  4. Bunford N., Andics A., Kis A., Miklósi A, Gácsi M. (2017) Canis familiaris as a model for non-invasive comparative neuroscience. Trends Neurosci. 40, 438-452. doi: 10.1016/j.tins.2017.05.003
  5. Popper AN, Hawkins AD (2019) An overview of fish bioacoustics and the impacts of anthropogenic sounds on fishes. J Fish Biol. 94(5), 692-713. doi: 10.1111/jfb.13948.

Contact person

Prof. Lieta Marinelli

Department of Comparative Biomedicine and Food Science (https://www.bca.unipd.it/)
University of Padova
tel.: +39-049-8279418
e-mail: lieta.marinelli@unipd.it