Theresa Burt de Perera

Research Interests

The main theme of my research concerns the study of spatial cognition. My group and I aim to understand how animals learn and remember spatial information from their environment, and how they use this information to navigate efficiently between locations. Aquatic habitats are unusual as they are volumes through which animals have three degrees of freedom in their movements. This is unlike most terrestrial environments, in which animals are generally constrained to surfaces. The main focus of our current research is to unravel the mechanisms and processes that underpin 3D navigation, by using fish as models. We use an integrated approach of sensory and cognitive experiments that are based both in the lab and in the field with an ultimate aim of understanding how animals learn and remember information to allow efficient navigation through complex 3D environments.

Other Interests

I am Secretary to the Animal Navigation Group in the Royal Institute of Navigation.

Contacts

Websites

• The Aquatic Navigation Group

Selected Publications

• Taylor, G. K., Holbrook, R.I. and Burt de Perera, T. (2010) Fractional rate of change of swim-bladder volume is reliably related to absolute depth during vertical displacements in teleost fish. In Press, Journal of the Royal Society, Interface.
• Holbrook, R.I. and Burt de Perera, T. (2009) Separate encoding of vertical and horizontal components of space during orientation in fish. Animal Behaviour, 78(2), 241-245.
• Aw, J. M., Holbrook, R.I., Burt de Perera, T., & Kacelnik, A. (2009) State-dependent Valuation Learning in Fish: Banded Tetras prefer stimuli associated with greater past deprivation. Behavioural Processes, 81(2), 333-336.
• Burt de Perera, T. and Braithwaite, V. A. 2005. Laterality in a non- visual sensory modality – the lateral line of fish. Current Biology 15(7), R241-R242.
• Burt de Perera, T., De Vos, A. and Guilford, T. 2005. The vertical component of a fish’s spatial map. Animal Behaviour 70, 405-409.
• Burt de Perera, T. 2004. Fish can encode order in their spatial map. 2004. Proceedings of the Royal Society B. 271, 2131-2134.