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The goal of the laboratory is to understand the neural mechanisms of complex locomotion. Previous work included biomechanics and muscle physiology. Current research is focused on the visuomotor control of maneuvering. We study avian flight because small birds are highly maneuverable and many of their behaviors can be examined in the laboratory. The neural pathways for transforming visual information into motor output are largely conserved between birds and mammals.
Although there is considerable information available about the neural circuitry for sensing and processing visual motion in birds and mammals, there is a major gap in our understanding of how motion perception is used during complex locomotion. Our research aims to unify behavioural studies of visual guidance with electrophysiological and immunohistochemical investigations of neural circuitry to determine the algorithms that vertebrates use for maneuvering. |
Altshuler Lab News7 May 2025 New paper in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface. For her PhD dissertation, Jasmin Wong investigated the consequences of avian wing morphing on changes in wing stiffness and aerodynamic performance. In this paper, she combined mechanical testing of in situ flight feathers in anesthetized pigeons with computational fluid-structure interaction simulations. This work revealed that the mechanical changes associated with wing morphing provide speed-dependent mechanisms that enhance flight performance.17 April 2025 New paper in the Journal of Zoology. We used our previous data sets on load lifting capacity and maneuverability of Anna's hummingbirds to ask if their turning performance was predicted by burst power reserves. We found overall support for this prediction even though indvidual performance maximums were not correlated with individual power reserves. Also, because they limited turning performance, power reserves created a tradeoff between turning radius and turning velocity.1 April 2025 Congratulations to Tephnie Beau de Rochars, who was awarded an NSERC CGS-M Fellowship!20 February 2025 Our new synthesis paper in the Journal of Experimental Biology argues that progress in the study of avian flight will accelerate by combining observations for generating alternative hypotheses with directly competing those hypotheses through experiments and analysis. This general framework was established by Platt in 1964 and explained in more modern terms in a 2014 JEB paper by Doug Fudge.15 January 2025 New paper in Proceedings of the Royal Society B. We measured the optokinetic response (OKR) in hummingbirds to test the prediction that their compensatory eye movements would lack directional bias. In contrast, we found that the hummingbird OKR, like in other laterally-eyed vertebrates, is biased for temporal-to-nasal motion. Another unexpected result was that eye-to-eye coupling was weak, and hummingbirds exhibited disjunctive OKR to visual motion simulating both forward and backward translation.19 December 2024 New paper in eNeuro. We asked if the directional selectivity of pretectal neurons that respond to global visual motion changes with stimulus speed. The bias for regressive (temporal-to-nasal) visual motion at intermediate speeds shifts to a bias for omnidirectional excitation at very fast speeds. This result suggests at least two functions of these neurons for making course corrections during locomotion.12 December 2024 Congratulations to Eric Press, who successfully defended his PhD on the topic of in vivo electrophysiology in zebra finches. A big thank you to Cris Neill who served as the external examiner. Eric will continue in the lab as a postdoc for the next few months.15 July 2024 Congratulations to Jolan Theriault on the successful defence of her PhD dissertation. And thank you to Florian Engert who served as the external examiner. Jo will be moving to Aarhus, Denmark in late August to start an NSERC Postdoctoral Fellowship with Peter Madsen in the Marine Bioacoustics Lab.1 July 2024 Congratulations to Tony Lapsansky, who opens his own lab today as a Senior Researcher in Biomechanics at the Salish Sea Research Center of Northwest Indian College.21 May 2024 New paper in the Journal of Experimental Biology. We found that hummingbirds exhibit complex wing deformations throughout the stroke cycle, and the timing and origin of these deformations differs between hoverfeeding behaviours. The issue has a great cover photo taken by Anand Varma.21 February 2024 New paper in the Journal of Comparative Neurology. We examined inputs from the midbrain and forebrain visual and somatosensory regions to the pontine nuclei of zebra finches. We discuss these results in the context of the organization of pontine inputs to the cerebellum and possible functional implications of diverse somato-motor and visuomotor inputs and parcellation in the pontine nuclei.10 January 2024 New paper in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B. We examined hummingbird forward and hovering flight while manipulating optic flow. The results were consistent with hummingbirds controlling flight speed via an internal forward model to predict expected optic flow whereas flight altitude and hovering position are controlled more directly by sensory feedback from the environment.6 September 2023 New synthesis paper in the Journal of Comparative Physiology A with a great cover. We discuss a growing body of research that suggests distinct neural pathways for integrating optic flow with other sensory and motor signals.21 August 2023 Congratulations to Francesca Ciocca who successfully defended her MSc thesis, titled "Passive morphing of the avian propatagium across wing range of motion".12 January 2023 New collaborative paper in Science: Our colleagues Ekaterina Osipova and Michael Hiller led a team in the discovery that FBP2, a glyconeogenic muscle enzyme, was lost as hovering flight evolved in the hummingbird lineage. Knockouts of this gene in avian cell lines led to an increase in glycolysis, mitochondria production, and mitochondrial respiration, all leading to higher energy efficiency.1 July 2022 Congratulations to Christina Harvey who started as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at UC Davis.20 June 2022 New paper in Current Biology. We found that the pretectal optic flow neurons of hummingbirds and zebra finches have distinct and specialized tuning properties.04 April 2022 Congratulations to Jasmin Wong on the successful defence of her PhD research! Jasmin has started a postdoctoral fellowship with Shane Windsor at the University of Bristol.01 April 2022 Congratulations to Francesca Ciocca who was awarded an NSERC Canada Graduate Scholarship - Masters, and to Eric Press who was awarded a British Columbia Graduate Scholarship.24 March 2022 New paper in Nature. In collaboration with Christina Harvey and Dan Inman from the AIMS lab at the University of Michigan, we found evidence that evolutionary pressures maintain birds’ capacity to shift between stable and unstable flight. There is an excellent New & Views article by Aimy Wissa.10 March 2022 Jasmin Wong discusses her PhD research in the Beaty Biodiversity Museum series Researchers Revealed.4 January 2022 New paper in the Journal of Neurophysiology: We measured the responses of optic flow neurons in the nBOR of hummingbirds and zebra finches. The direction preferences of nBOR neurons is similar to other species, but these neurons are more sharply tuned in the spatiotemporal domain, especially for hummingbirds.3 November 2021 A new collaborative paper with the MAESTRO lab was published today in Journal of the Royal Society Interface. We found that Shape Memory Alloys (SMAs) can take on diverse roles in motion control, similar to the flexible tuning of muscle elements.9 August 2021 Congratulations to Sarina Azargoon for her successful MSc defence! Sarina investigated the retina to cerebellum pathways in hummingbirds and zebra finches.20 May 2021 Jolan Theriault received the 2021 Raja Rosenbluth Award for Women in Biological Sciences. Congratulations Jo!18 December 2020 Congratulations to Shelly Wu for a succesful MSc defence. Shelly investigated the neural connections between midbrain optic flow nuclei, the inferior olive, and the vestibulocerebellum of zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata).25 November 2020 Congratulations to Roz Dakin, former postdoc in the lab! Roz has received the 2021 Bartholomew Award from the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology. Carleton University has a nice write-up about the award here.16 November 2020 New paper in the Journal of Experimental Biology: We developed an in situ work loop approach for measuring muscle power from the zebra finch pectoralis major. Our experiments demonstrated that increasing flapping velocity via strain amplitude, rather than via wingbeat frequency, consistently increases net power. The research was written up for Inside JEB.30 October 2020 New commentary paper in the Journal of Experimental Biology: An analytical approach for voluntary behavior in hummingbirds suggests four broad hypotheses for the biomechanics of manuevering flight.22 June 2020 Congratulations to Shree Senthivasan for another successful MSc defence! Shree worked on developing an interital sensor network for high-throughput analysis of wing motion.15 June 2020 Congratulations to Leo Wood! He successfully defended his MSc research on the avian propatagium. Leo is heading next to Atlanta and the Georgia Tech Quantitative Biosciences program for his PhD.8 June 2020 New synthesis paper in Current Biology. This collaborative review focuses on animal pursuit and evasion: behaviours that provide natural experiments for testing algorithms linking sensory input to motor output.24 February 2020 Vikram Baliga discusses his postdoctoral research in the Beaty Biodiversity Museum series Researchers Revealed.3 February 2020 Doug Altshuler and Doug Wylie wrote a "Quick Guide" on hummingbird vision for this month's front matter in Current Biology.23 October 2019 New paper in Science Advances: Working with the Beaty Museum, we showed that avian wing morphing, rather than wing shape, explains variation in body size and flight style.3 September 2019 New paper in Journal of Comparative Neurology: We used tract tracing to demonstrate differences in connectivity between midbrain optic flow areas and the occulomotor cerebellum of hummingbirds, zebra finches, and pigeons. These results provide further evidence that optic flow circuits differ among bird species with distinct modes of flight.8 August 2019 New paper in Physiological and Biochemical Zoology: We performed two behavioral experiments and one anatomical procedure to measure temporal and spatial visual resolution in hummingbirds.15 April 2019 New paper in the Journal of Experimental Biology: We demonstrated that natural variation in the wingbeat frequency and activation of the pigeon humerotriceps provides functional plasticity that can effectively power different flight behaviours. The research was written up for Inside JEB and was also featured on the journal cover.29 March 2019 Congratulations to Eric Press, who was awarded an NSERC Postgraduate Scholarship-Doctoral.2 January 2019 New paper in Journal of the Royal Society Interface: We used a combination of behavioral observations, functional anatomy, and wind tunnel tests to demonstrate that gulls are able to modulate their static stability characteristics by morphing their wings, which may be sufficient to passively stabilize a gliding bird.25 June 2018 Congratulations to Graham Smyth, who successfully defended his MSc research on spatiotemporal tuning of optic flow neurons in hummingbirds and zebra finches.20 April 2018 Former postdoc Roz Dakin has accepted a faculty position in the Department of Biology at Carleton University. She will start her lab there in July 2019. Congratulations Roz!9 April 2018 In a new synthesis paper, we review data from pigeons, zebra finches, and hummingbirds to argue for two distinct optic flow pathways used in flight control. This collaborative paper is the final article in the special topic on avian visual guidance in Frontiers in Neuroscience.29 March 2018 Congratulations to Jolan Theriault for award of an NSERC graduate fellowship to support her PhD studies.16 March 2018 New paper: Doug and Srini Srinivasan wrote a review article on the visual guidance of bird flight, which is part of the special topic they edited together with Doug Wylie for Frontiers in Neuroscience.14 March 2018 Congratulations to Christina Harvey! She successfully defended her MSc research on wing morphing in gulls today. Christina will next go to Dan Inman's lab in the Department of Aerospace Engineering at the University of Michigan for her PhD.8 February 2018 New paper in Science: We used a multi-camera tracking system to record the maneuvering behaviour of over 200 hummingbirds from 25 species. We found species differences in maneuverability that are determined by evolved changes in muscle capacity and wing morphology as well as skill.29 January 2018 A new collaborative paper with the Fernández-Juricic lab was published today in Frontiers in Neuroscience. We characterized the hummingbird visual field configuration and the orientation of the centers of acute vision.16 January 2018 A new collaborative paper with the Wylie lab has been published online today in the Journal of Comparative Physiology A. We used track tracing to establish retinal inputs to the nucleus lentiformis mesencephali in zebra finches and hummingbirds.28 November 2017 Congratulations to Dimitri Skandalis! He defended his PhD on hummingbird morphology and wing morphing today. Dimitri has started a great postdoc with Jimmy Liao at the University of Florida.14 November 2017 New paper in Frontiers in Neuroscience. We measured the forces that hummingbirds load on an feeder when docked. This revealed that they guide hover feeding by prioritizing visual signals over potential tactile cues.19 October 2017 New paper in Nature Communications: We developed an allometric framework based on the force equation. Our analysis revealed that unfavourable scaling of power requirements within hummingbird species leads to morphological diversification among species.23 August 2017 Congratulations to Jolan Theriault for successfully defending her MSc thesis today. Jolan will be continuing in the lab as a PhD student.24 April 2017 Congratulations to Christina Harvey and to Graham Smyth! Both were awarded Canada Graduate Scholarships from NSERC to support their MSc research.21 April 2017 Andrea Gaede has been awarded a prestigious AAAS Judicial Branch Fellowship and will be moving to Washington, DC in September. Congratulations Dre!21 March 2017 Joe Bahlman has accepted a faculty position at California State University, Sacramento. Congratulations Joe!5 January 2017 New paper: We recorded from global visual motion neurons in the lentiformis mesencephali of hummingbirds and zebra finches. This study, now online at Current Biology, revealed unique response properties that provide a potential mechanism for the visual guidance of hovering flight in hummingbirds.8 December 2016 New paper: We used a combination of field and lab studies to determine how maneuvering performance of hummingbirds changes across elevations. This work is now online at Current Biology.23 November 2016 Congratulations to Benny Goller. He successfully defended his PhD dissertation on hummingbird visual guidance. Benny will be moving to Purdue University in January to start a postdoc with Esteban Fernandez-Juricic.18 July 2016 A new lab study on the visual guidance of course control during forward flight has been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA..12 May 2016 Congratulations to Dimitri! He received the William S. Hoar Award for the best student oral presentation at the annual meeting of the Canadian Society of Zoologists.26 April 2016 Congratulations to Jolan Theriault! She was awarded a Canada Graduate Scholarship from NSERC to support her MSc research.30 March 2016 A new lab paper on the biomechanics of arcing turns by hummingbirds has been published in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface .2 March 2016 Congratulations again to Roz! Today she received the Faculty of Science Excellence in Service Award for a postdoc. This award recognizes Roz for creating and leading workshops to help colleagues improve their knowledge of statistical analysis.6 January 2016 Congratulations to Roz Dakin, who received the Dorothy M. Skinner Award from the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology! This award recognizes one young female scientist each year who has demonstrated outstanding scholarship and shows high potential for continued excellence in research.19 November 2015 A new lab paper on the biomechanical determinants of maneuverability has been published in eLife.16 October 2015 A review paper on the biophysics of bird flight, written by the lab group, has appeared online for an upcoming special issue in the Canadian Journal of Zoology.20 July 2015 Congratulations to Paolo Segre, who has successfully defended his PhD dissertation on the biomechanics of maneuvering flight. Paolo is now a postdoc with Jeremy Goldbogen at Stanford University.3 June 2015 Congratulations to Tyee Fellows, who has successfully defended his MSc thesis on the temporal and spatial acuity of the hummingbird visual system.8 April 2015 Congratulations to Tyson Read, who has successfully defended his MSc thesis on the biomechanics of arcing turns.18 March 2015 A new collaborative aerodynamics study on wing aspect ratio has appeared in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface.15 January 2015 Doug's work on hummingbird maneuverability is featured in Episode 3 ("Triumph") of the new David Attenborough series Conquest Of The Skies.8 December 2014 A new lab publication on the visual guidance of hovering flight has appeared in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA.14 November 2014 A new analysis of honeybee aerodynamics has appeared in Physiological and Biochemical Zoology.30 July 2014 A comparative study of hummingbird aerodynamics has appeared in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface.01 June 2014 Tyee Fellows is awarded a Canada Graduate Scholarship from NSERC.16 April 2014 Dimitri Skandalis passed his comprehensive exam and is now a PhD candidate.03 April 2014 A new analysis of hummingbird systematics will appear in Current Biology.01 April 2014 Roslyn Dakin is awarded a prestigious NSERC postdoctoral fellowship to pursue her research in the lab!16 August 2013 Joe Bahlman won the best student presentation at IBRC 2013!24 June 2013 Congratulations to Amelia Stegeman who is off to UBC med school!13 June 2013 Amelia Stegeman proves she has mastered science by successfully defending her thesis on the development of a 3D hummingbird brain atlas. Congratulations!16 May 2013 The lab is very pleased that Dr. Andrea Gaede is joining, strengthening our neurobiology focus.16 April 2013 A Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Inner Workings focus on Avian Acrobatics by Prashant Nair is out. Features a dashing young Douglas Altshuler.20 March 2013 Congratulations to Benny Goller for passing his comprehensive exam! Benny is officially a PhD Candidate, graduating from Candidate for PhD Candidate.19 March 2013 The Altshuler, Lentink, and Srinivisan labs land a collaborative HFSP grant to examine the visual guidance of transitions between flight modes in birds. |
Where to find us:
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Department of Zoology University of British Columbia #4200-6270 University Blvd. Vancouver, B.C. Canada V6T 1Z4 Lab Phone: (604) 822-2373 |