Animal Brain and Cognition Group - ABC group | CIMEC

Overview

The main goal of the group leaded by Giorgio Vallortigara is the investigation of cognitive processes and their neurobiological bases in a comparative perspective. Research is mainly focused on the mechanisms of cerebral representation of physical and social objects, numbers, time and space. To carry this out, different species of vertebrates are used, in particular fish, birds along with small rodents, housed in our Animal House as well as invertebrates, as honeybees, bumblebees and fruitfly.
The group focus special attention on animal models characterized by simpler (or otherwise different) cerebral architectures than those of mammals, in order to provide support for comparative research and investigations into basic neurological mechanisms. Part of the lab staff is currently involved in a research project, funded by ERC grants on behavioral and neural characterization of unlearned social-predispositions present in early developmental stages of distant species (newly-hatched chicks and human newborns) and part in a research project on the origins of numerosity cognition funded by Human Frontiers Science Program. The techniques used combine traditional methods of ethological and behavioral investigation with neurobiological procedures, such as single cell recordings and immunohistochemistry analyses of gene expression in the brain.

Research directions

neural Bases of Animacy;
behavioral and neural characterization of unlearned social-predispositions present in early developmental stages of distant species (newly-hatched chicks and human newborns;
neural and genetic bases of numeracy;
investigation of the neural and molecular bases of numerosity cognition in zebrafish.