Ritchie-A202 Jacks main page contains a more comprehensive personal profile. Research Interests Comparative neuroscience Professor Jack Pettigrew's research interest is in comparative neuroscience. A variety of different birds and mammals are studied with modern neural tracing techniques to unravel principles of brain organization.
Special emphasis is placed on the visual, auditory and somatosensory systems.
Professor Pettigrew was the first person to clarify the neurobiological basis of stereopsis when he described neurones sensitive to binocular disparity. He continues to influence this field with seminal papers on both the ontogenetic development and the evolution of binocular neurones. Of note in the former area of visual development are his recent studies indicating a role for non-visual pathways in the phenomenon of developmental plasticity during the postnatal 'critical period'. Of note in the latter area is his discovery that owls have independently evolved a system of binocular neurones like those found in mammals.