Psychology and Neuroscience Seminar -- Dr Vivek Nityananda

The School of Psychology and Neuroscience is hosting a seminar presented by Dr Vivek Nityananda from Newcastle University on 'Stereo Vision and Prey Detection in the Praying Mantis'.

Praying mantises are the only insects known to have stereo vision. We used a comparative approach to determine how the mechanisms underlying stereopsis in mantises differ from those underlying primate stereo vision. By testing mantises with virtual 3D targets we showed that mantis stereopsis enables prey capture in complex scenes but relies on a different mechanism to the cross-correlation of eye images seen in primates. My talk will further discuss how stereopsis combines with second-order motion perception to enable the detection of camouflaged prey by mantises. Finally the talk will highlight the benefits of a comparative approach towards understanding visual cognition more generally.

The seminar will be held in the Old Library in the School of Psychology and Neuroscience.