Staff Profile

Qualifications

Ph.D., Animal Behaviour, Indian Institute of Science

M.Sc. Biological Sciences, Birla Institute of Technology and Sciences, Pilani

Previous Positions

College for Life Sciences Fellow, Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin, Institute for Advanced Study

Marie Curie Research Fellow, Queen Mary University of London

Human Frontiers Science Program Research Fellow, Queen Mary University of London

Postdoctoral Research Associate, University of Minnesota

Grants, Fellowships and Awards

2021 Leverhulme Research Grant (as Co-I with Prof Jennifer Richards, Newcastle University)

2019 BBSRC David Phillips Fellowship

2018 Best Postdoc Paper Prize, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Newcastle University

2017 Shortlisted for Times Higher Education Research Project of the Year (STEM)

2016 Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin, Institute of Advanced Study, College for Life Sciences Fellowship

2016 Wellcome Trust Small Arts Award (for a play about insect senses with Cap-A-Pie Theatre, Newcastle)

2016 EngageFMS- Creative Arts Practice Award (for a play about insect senses with Cap-A-Pie Theatre, Newcastle)

2015 Great North Museum Fellowship for Public Engagement

2014 Centre for Behaviour and Evolution Small Grant (with Dr Ronny Rosner and Dr Ghaith Tarawneh)

2012 Centre for Ecology and Evolution Research Grant (with Dr Shakti Lamba)

2011 Marie Curie Incoming International Fellowship

2010 Human Frontiers in Science Program Long Term Fellowship

2009 Shyamrao Kaikini Award for best PhD thesis in Ecology, Indian Institute of Science

External responsibilities

2020-present Member, Equality, Diversity, Inclusion and Accessibility Committee, Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour

2020-present Member, Inclusion and Diversity Committee, International Scoiety for Neuroethology

2019-present Member, BAME advisory board, Newcastle University

2018- present Academic Editor, PLoS One

2015 - present Member, Executive committee, Centre for Behaviour and Evolution, Newcastle University

2014 - 2019 Member, Equality and Diversity Committee, Institute of Neuroscience, Newcastle University

2014 –2019 Member, Postdoctoral committee, Institute of Neuroscience, Newcastle University

2012 – 2013 Joint postdoctoral representative, Research Strategy Group, Queen Mary University of London

2012 - 2013 Joint secretary, London Evolutionary Research Network, a society for post-graduate students and postdoctoral researchers engaged in evolutionary research.

Reviewer for the following journals:

Current Biology, Methods in Ecology and Evolution, Proceedings of the Royal Society B, Journal of Experimental Biology, PLoS Biology, Royal Society Interface, Behavioural Ecology, Scientific Reports, Functional Ecology, Animal Behaviour, Psychological Science, Journal of Comparative Physiology A, PLoS One, Current Opinion in Insect Science, Ecological Entomology, Ethology, Resonance, Current Science

Google Scholar: Click here.

SCOPUS: Click here.

I am currently on a BBSRC David Phillips Fellowship researching attention-like processes in insects. 

My research is multidisciplinary and combines ecology, evolutionary biology, neuroscience and psychophysics to study animal behaviour. I use a variety of techniques as part of my research, including behavioural observations, experiments, neurophysiology and agent-based modelling of neural and evolutionary processes. My work combines diverse approaches to provide an integrative understanding of behaviour. 

I am a member of the Biosciences Institute and my work contributes to the Behavioural Science and Psychology research theme.

Current projects:

1. Attention-like processes in insects

Insect brains are orders of magnitude smaller than primate brains. Ye they solve several of the same visual problems that primates do - often with smart, efficient solutions. One of the most important of these problems is that of selective attention - choosing one target and ignoring the distractors, something that is vital for foraging or avoiding predators. I've been awarded a BBSRC David Phillips Fellowship to investigate how insects manage to do so by combining insights from neuroscience, psychology and ecology. The research will also investigate the role these attention-like processes play in pollination and in particular how pesticides might affect the sensory systems of pollinators. The aims are thus to further advance the rapid recent progress of research into insect visual processing and enhance our understanding of the effect of pesticides on pollinator health.

2. Stereo vision, camouflage and prey detection in the praying mantis

Praying mantises are specialized visual predators and are the only invertebrates known to have stereo vision. On collaboration with Prf Jenny Read we're investigating how they compute stereo vision and if their mechanisms of stereo vision are similar to those seen in primates or not. This will shed light on whether and how nervous systems evolve convergent solutions to similar problems. It could also lead to the development of novel mantis-inspired depth perception algorithms. You can read more about the project here: http://www.jennyreadresearch.com/research/m3/. In addition to work on stereo vision, we're also investigating other visual adaptation that help mantises detect prey, especially when they are camouflaged.

3. The evolution of self-deception and overconfidence (in collaboration with Dr. Shakti Lamba).

One explanation for the evolution of overconfidence and self-deception is that they help us deceive others about our abilities and gain social status. We are developing an empirical research programme testing this idea in humans and other species. Our first findings are published here: http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0104562

MMB8047 Evolution and Human Behaviour

MMB8043 Comparative Cognition: Information Processing in Humans and Other Animals

Previous lectures: Animal Communication, Sensory Ecology, Selective Attention, An Introduction to Matlab

• O'Keeffe J, Yap SH, Cornejo IL, Nityananda V, Read JCA. A Computational Model of Stereoscopic Prey Capture inPraying Mantises. PLOS Computational Biology 2022, 18(5), e1009666.
• Greenfield MD, Aihara I, Amichay G, Anichini M, Nityananda V. Rhythm interaction in animal groups: selective attention in communication networks. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London Series B: Biological Sciences 2021, 376(1835), 20200338.
• Bouwer FL, Nityananda V, Rouse AA, ten Cate Carel. Rhythmic abilities in humans and non-human animals: a review and recommendations from a methodological perspective. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 2021, 376(1835).
• Henry MJ, Cook PF, de Reus K, Nityananda V, Rouse AA, Kotz SA. An ecological approach to measuring synchronization abilities across the animal kingdom. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 2021, 376, 20200336.
• Nityananda V, Balakrishnan R. Synchrony of complex signals in an acoustically communicating katydid. Journal of Experimental Biology 2021, 224(9), jeb241877.
• Nityananda V, Chittka L. Different effects of reward value and saliency during bumblebee visual search for multiple rewarding targets. Animal Cognition 2021, 24, 803-814.
• Nityananda V. Insect Neurobiology: Divergent Neural Computations in Predatory Insects. Current Biology 2020, 30(4), R159-R161.
• Nityananda V, O'Keeffe J, Umeton D, Simmons A, Read JCA. Second-order cues to figure motion enable object detection during prey capture by praying mantises. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 2019, 116(52), 27018-27027.
• Nityananda V, Joubier C, Tan J, Tarawneh G, Read JCA. Motion-in-depth perception and prey capture in the praying mantis Sphodromantis lineola. Journal of Experimental Biology 2019, 222, jeb198614.
• Tarawneh G, Jones L, Nityananda V, Rosner R, Rind C, Read JCA. Apparent Motion Perception in the Praying Mantis: Psychophysics and Modelling. Vision 2018, 2(3), 32.
• Tarawneh G, Nityananda V, Rosner R, Errington S, Herbert W, Arranz-Paraiso S, Busby N, Tamping J, Read J, Serrano-Pedraza I. Contrast thresholds reveal different visual masking functions in humans and praying mantises. Biology Open 2018, 7, bio029439.
• Nityananda V, Tarawneh G, Henriksen S, Umeton D, Simmons A, Read JCA. A Novel Form of Stereo Vision in the Praying Mantis. Current Biology 2018, 28(4), 588-593.
• Nityananda V, Read JCA. Stereopsis in animals: evolution, function and mechanisms. Journal of Experimental Biology 2017, 220(14), 2502-2512.
• Tarawneh G, Nityananda V, Rosner R, Errington S, Herbert W, Cumming BG, Read JCA, Serrano-Pedraza I. Invisible noise obscures visible signal in insect motion detection. Scientific Reports 2017, 7, 3496.
• Nityananda V, Tarawneh G, Errington S, Serrano-Pedraza I, Read J. The optomotor response of the praying mantis is driven predominantly by the central visual field. Journal of Comparative Physiology A 2017, 203(1), 77-87.
• Nityananda V. Attention-like processes in insects. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological sciences 2016, 283(1842), 20161986.
• Nityananda V, Bissianna G, Tarawneh G, Read J. Small or far away? Size and distance perception in the praying mantis. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 2016, 371(1697), 1-8.
• Nityananda V, Tarawneh G, Rosner R, Nicolas J, Crichton S, Read J. Insect stereopsis demonstrated using a 3D insect cinema. Scientific Reports 2016, 6, 1-9.
• Read J, Nityananda V, Tarawneh G, Rosner R, Jones ML. Natural behaviour with artificial stimuli: probing praying mantis vision. In: 16th Vision Sciences Society Annual Meeting (VSS). 2016, Florida, USA: Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology.
• Nityananda V, Chittka L. Modality-specific attention in foraging bumblebees. Royal Society Open Science 2015, 2, 1-10.
• Nityananda V, Tarawneh G, Jones L, Busby N, Herbert W, Davies R, Read JCA. The contrast sensitivity function of the praying mantis Sphodromantis lineola. Journal of Comparative Physiology A 2015, 201(8), 741-750.
• Nityananda V, Tarawneh G, Rosner R, Nicolas J, Crichton S, Read J. Insect stereo vision demonstrated using virtual 3D stimuli. In: 38th European Conference on Visual Perception (EVCP) 2015. 2015, Liverpool, UK: Sage.
• Nityananda V, Skorupski P, Chittka L. Can bees see at a glance?. Journal of Experimental Biology 2014, 217, 1933-1939.
• Lamba S, Nityananda V. Self-Deceived Individuals Are Better at Deceiving Others. PLoS One 2014, 9(8), e104562.
• Nityananda V, Pattrick JG. Bumblebee visual search for multiple learned target types. Journal of Experimental Biology 2013, 216, 4154-4160.
• Nityananda V. Making Sense of the World. (Review of Sensory Ecology, Behaviour and Evolution by Martin Stevens. Oxford University Press (2013), 264 pages. ISBN: 978-0-199-60178-3). Journal of Evolutionary Psychology 2013, 11(2), 89-92.
• Nityananda V, Bee MA. Spatial release from masking in a free-field source identification task by gray treefrogs. Hearing Research 2012, 285(1-2), 86-97.
• Nityananda V, Bee MA. Finding your mate at a cocktail party: frequency separation promotes auditory stream segregation of concurrent voices in multi-species frog choruses. PLoS One 2011, 6(6), e21191.
• Nityananda V, Balakrishnan R. Modeling the role of competition and cooperation in the evolution of katydid acoustic synchrony. Behavioral Ecology 2009, 20, 484-489.
• Nityananda V, Balakrishnan R. Leaders and followers in katydid choruses in the field: call intensity, spacing and consistency. Animal Behaviour 2008, 76, 723-735.
• Nityananda V, Stradner J, Roemer H, Balakrishnan R. Selective attention in a synchronising bushcricket: physiology, behaviour and ecology. Journal of Comparative Physiology A 2007, 193.
• Nityananda V, Balakrishnan R. Synchrony during acoustic interactions in the bushcricket Mecopoda 'Chirper' (Tettigoniidae:Orthoptera) is generated by a combination of chirp-by-chirp resetting and change in intrinsic chirp rate. Journal of Comparative Physiology A 2007, 193, 51-65.
• Nityananda V, Balakrishnan R. A diversity of songs among morphologically indistinguishable katydids of the Genus Mecopoda (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae) from Southern India. Bioacoustics 2006, 15, 223-250.