Daniel Osorio - Reader in Neuroscience
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Phone Location Webpage |
++44 (1273) 87-7440 JMS 3B31 D.Osorio@sussex.ac.uk http://www.lifesci.sussex.ac.uk/home/Daniel_Osorio/CUTTLE/ |
| Search the CCNR bibliography for papers by Daniel Osorio | ||
Research Interests
I work on how vision operates in natural conditions, and on evolution of eyes and vision. Most of my research is on colour vision. Colour is a robust cue to object identity, and animals often use colour for communication. It is interesting non-human animals perceive colour, and we work with domestic chicks, which learn quickly to recognise food items by colour. We especially interested in how chicks generalise from familiar to novel colours to establish perceptual categories, and how these categories are modified by experience.
Primates have a range of di- and tri- chromatic eyes, and it is not clear whether different types of colour vision are suited for different lifestyles, or if the standard trichromacy of 'normal' humans is best regardless. I collaborate with field workers, who study how wild primates select their food. We then measure spectra of fruit and leaves from food plants, and model the visual signals encoded by different types of eye.
Finally we are studying adaptive coloration in cuttlefish, which is able to alter its body patterns with stunning speed and flexibility to communicate and to camouflage itself on the seafloor. Follow this link for more details of our research on cuttlefish.