The main objective of the CRCA is the multidisciplinary and comparative study of cognitive processes in various animal models ranging from invertebrates to vertebrates.

• At the level of the individual, we are interested in perceptual processes, selective attention, and the learning and memorization of point and spatial cues. The understanding of these processes requires multidisciplinary studies from various approaches such as ethology, experimental psychology, neuroethology, neurobiology, molecular biology and modelling. In this context, the study of the animal brain and its plasticity is a priority of our unit.
• At the level of societies or species living in groups, we are interested in the behavioural rules allowing the coordination of activities within groups, from which complex collective behaviour can emerge through self-organisation processes. We thus study distributed cognition based on interactions and the direct or indirect transmission of information between individuals. In this framework, approaches from ethology, modelling, physics and robotics are employed.

Research teams :

Collective behaviour (CAB) Person in charge: Vincent Fourcassié

Experience-dependent plasticity in insects (EXPLAIN) Leaders: Martin Giurfa and Jean-Marc Devaud

Interindividual Variability and Emergent Plasticity (IVEP) Manager: Raphaël Jeanson

Neurobiological mechanisms of memory (REMEMBeR) Person in charge: Claire Rampon

Mitochondria, neuronal plasticity and neurodegeneration (MINDING) Person in charge: Pascale Belenguer

Sources / contacts :

Centre de Recherches sur la Cognition Animale (UMR 5169) - Centre de Biologie Intégrative
CNRS - Paul Sabatier University - Bât 4R3
710 Rosalind Franklin Court
118, route de Narbonne
31062 Toulouse cedex 09
France

Telephone (secretariat, Mrs C. Renault) : +33 5 61 55 67 31

The portrait page in the Biomim'BOOK 2019 :

Website