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Research opportunities in the Mason Lab., Jan. 2009 From Jan. 2009 I am accepting Ph.D. students and post-docs only (no Masters students). I cannot pay stipends and fees, and so only take on those with NSERC scholarships, fellowships or equivalent (for possible sources of funding, see end). However, I can offer very well-equipped labs., and would fully support all research costs including conference trips, visits to collaborators, laptops, books, etc. Project 1: Is there something wrong with stereotypic lab. mice? And if so, does it matter? In the dark and quiet of the night, the typical mouse-based research lab. is alive with repetitive movements: mice jump on the spot, run in circles, and perform somersaults and a host of other stereotypic behaviours. Are these responses simply what normal behaviour patterns look like in small, confined spaces? Or do they reflect some underlying change in the animal’s functioning, akin to those of people with autism, amphetamine-addiction and other clinical conditions involving forebrain dysfunction? Somewhat like María Díez Leon’s project, this project would use lab. mice housed in an array of cages from the standard through to the ‘super-enriched’, to test the hypotheses that (i) environments that induce stereotypic behaviour do so by altering how the mouse brain controls and sequences behaviour patterns; and that (ii) these alterations are dysfunctional. Techniques to be used would include operant methods for assessing how behaviours are controlled and sequenced (e.g. whether this is flexible, or instead perseverative when reward contingencies are changed); other non-invasive probes of forebrain function (e.g. pre-pulse inhibition); and the analysis of social behaviour (e.g. ultrasonic courtship songs; attractiveness in mate choice tests; maternal care) to ascertain whether affected animals should be labelled ‘impaired’. This project could also be extended in various other directions including: exploring underlying CNS changes in more detail, in collaboration with Professor Mark Lewis, University of Florida; investigating gene*environment interactions, by exploring whether different strains are differentially affected by enrichment/cage size; investigating how stereotypic mice perform in various common research paradigms (to see if they might alter research results); investigating the welfare implications of various forms of housing, to investigate whether environments that improve brain function map onto those that improve welfare; or taking on elements of Projects 2 or 3 (see below). Project 2: Why do stereotypic behaviours become hard to cure with age? Zoo animals and stabled horses often show abnormal behaviour patterns that are incredibly hard to ‘cure’: bears may rock and pace even when moved to large, new super-enriched enclosure, and crib-biters may stubbornly crib-bite even when moved to pasture (see also Jamie Dallaire’s project). Research on lab. rodents has demonstrated similar changes in stereotyping animals with age (or through being housed a long time in barren cages: these two are typically confounded): environmental enrichments that reduce stereotypic behaviours in young adults cease to do so for older adults. However, no-one has ever investigated what changes or why. The project would use laboratory mice to test the following broad hypotheses:
So far, pilot data collected by Sarah-Lee Tilly support Hypothesis i): she found that compared with 6 month old mice, the stereotypic behaviour of 11 month old mice was less reduced by environmental enrichment; and within this elderly group, the mice for whom enrichment had the least behavioural impact also found these enrichments least rewarding (they were less willing to push weighted doors to reach them). Techniques used in this project would thus include operant or similar methods for assessing motivation (to quantify enrichment value), as well as the assessment of perseveration (to infer forebrain changes in behavioural control); along with various methods for non-invasively assessing physiological stress (e.g. corticosteroid assay from urine/faeces; heart-rate as detected through the soles of the feet).This project could also be extended in various directions including exploring underlying CNS changes in more detail, in collaboration with Professor Mark Lewis, University of Florida; investigating how neophobia and anhedonia increase in aging animals; or incorporating elements of Projects 1 and 3. Project 3: What do non-stereotypic lab. mice do instead of stereotyping? Do standard lab. conditions induce depression? Work in other labs. has shown that while some strains of mice react to chronic stress by becoming hyper-active and stereotypic, other mouse strains develop ‘learned helplessness’: a symptom of depression. The aim of this project would be to test two hypotheses: i) that standard early weaning (see Allison’s project) and small cages induce depression-like states in mice; ii) these are most marked in caged animals that spend their time inactive rather than stereotypic (see Becky Meagher’s project). Techniques for testing these hypotheses could include the assessment of negative cognitive bias; the use of traditional tests for rodent depression (e.g. anhedonia as indexed by low sucrose consumption); assessment of hippocampal volume post mortem; the non-invasively assessment of physiological stress (e.g. corticosteroid assay from urine/faeces; heart-rate as detected through the soles of the feet); studying of social behaviour (e.g. ultrasonic courtship songs; attractiveness in mate choice tests; maternal care) to ascertain whether affected animals are impaired; and investigating gene*environment interactions, by exploring whether different strains are differentially affected by enrichment/cage size. By developing methods of objectively assessing whether captivity can induce depression-like states, this project would have implications for a whole host of other captive animals. Project 4: What aspects of behavioural ecology or cognitive ability determine parrot welfare in captivity? (In collaboration with Dr. Claudia Mettke-Hofmann, Professor Louis Lefebvre, and several other researchers) Similar in methods, aims and scope to the ‘primate welfare’ project being run with Dr. Charlotte Burn, this project would seek the biological risk factors for poor welfare across the many diverse species of parrot. Some species are very prone to extreme forms of stereotypic behaviour in captivity (e.g. self-mutilation), yet the risk factors (and thus the best way to pre-empt these) are unknown. This project would build on databases on self-plucking in captivity, and on species typical natural home ranges, time budgets etc., already built up by Dr. Claudia Mettke-Hofmann. These databases need up-dating and adding to (e.g. with information on nestling survival rates, and other potential indices of captive welfare). Furthermore, some parrot species have remarkable cognitive abilities. Do intelligent species fare best in captivity because they are so adaptable? Or poorly because they are most frustrated by predictable environments? Data related to species-typical intelligence include innovation rates as compiled by Professor Louis Lefebvre; relative brain size would also need to be quantified. This project is ideal for someone interested in the fundamental risk factors for good and bad welfare, with good analytical and data management skills. Potential funders For Canadian prospective Ph.D. students and post-docs NSERC Canada Graduate Scholarships and Post-graduate Scholarships,
For any non-Canadians wanting to do graduate studies in Canada
For British prospective Ph.D. students and post-docs
For American prospective PhD. students and post-docs
For US post-docs:
For Swiss post-docs
For Austrian post-docs For New Zealand post-docs
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| gmason @ uoguelph.ca | 519-824-4120, ext. 56804 |
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