Dr. Rohini Balakrishnan
Professor, Centre for Ecological Sciences,
Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore
Title: Small Brains, Big Problems, Smart Solutions
Date: Wednesday, 17th August 2022
Time: 05:30 pm (IST)
Link: https://bit.ly/IITDCogSci20220817
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Abstract
Insects are among the most successful terrestrial organisms. In spite of being small, with modest numbers of neurons in their nervous systems, they often solve complex problems. To find food or mates, they have to navigate their way through complex, noisy environments. I will use mate-finding in acoustically communicating crickets as a model system to illustrate how they manage to solve computationally demanding tasks such as locating sound sources and selectively attending to relevant targets in noisy environments.
About the Speaker
Rohini Balakrishnan is an Indian bioacoustics expert. She is a senior Professor and Chair of the Centre for Ecological Sciences at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru. She received her PhD in behavior genetics from the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) in Mumbai, India. She then carried out her postdoctoral research at McGill University, Canada, studying acoustic communication in animals. She has also completed a second postdoc from the University of Erlangen, Germany. Her current research focuses on animal behavior through the lens of animal communication and bioacoustics.