In addition to the main olfactory system that detects airborne odours, mice possess a vomeronasal system that is specialised for the detection of non-volatile urinary cues. These pheremones mediate relatively stereotyped behavioural and neuroendocrine responses. Behavioural, immunohistochemical, neurochemical and electrophysiological techniques are being used to investigate the nature of these mouse pheromones and their neural representation in the vomeronasal system. Of particular interest is a simple form of learning by which a female mouse is able to recognise the pheromonal signal of her mate. The neural changes underlying this learning has been localised to particular synapses in the accessory olfactory bulb, which form the focus of much of the current research.
Many animals can learn a behaviour or acquire a dietary preference from another animal.
This is referred to as social learning. Social learning has been of interest to ethologists and behaviour ecologists because it seems to allow animals to learn about their environments rapidly and efficiently, without them making costly mistakes, or wasting time on exploration. Shoaling generates social learning of foraging information in guppies. We are conducting a multidisciplinary research program on the neural mechanisms of learning and memory in vertebrates. A major interest is to analyse the neural basis of imprinting in domestic chicks.