Flight of Fancy
10 May 2011
Dr Jon Erichsen from the School of Optometry and Vision Sciences, who is also a member of the recently launched Neuroscience and Mental Health Research Institute, has been awarded £248,049 by the Leverhulme Trust to study the homing pigeon’s biological sensitivity to the earth’s magnetic field, together with Dr Turgut Meydan, from the Wolfson Magnetics Group in the School of Engineering. The grant, entitled “Magnetoreception in the homing pigeon: A novel approach”, aims to develop a new relatively simple behavioural assay, based on an intrinsic property of the nervous system when exposed to any sensory stimulation. Potentially, thi s approach can help reveal the specific properties of magnetic detection (e.g., is it truly visual?) as well as its underlying neural mechanisms, both in birds and ultimately in other animals. The project, inspired by proof-of-concept studies undertaken as part of a Richard Whipp interdisciplinary PhD studentship funded by the University, will run from July 2011 until June 2014.