Carsten Schradin

Fellowship 2012

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Carsten Schradin studied in Germany and obtained his PhD from the University of Zurich (Switzerland) in 2001, where he also received his habilitation in 2008. Since October 2012 he is working at the IPHC in Strasbourg. In 2001 he established a unique facility, the Succulent Karoo Research Station in South Africa. His decade long field studies include data of 12 generations of striped mice living under changing and challenging environmental conditions. Dr. Schradin has published 50 papers, gave 3 plenary talks at international conferences, and 25 invited talks at universities worldwide. He has successful collaborations in South Africa, Europe and the USA.

Eco-Physiology of Cognition: a New and Integrative Research Field

Post-doc : Audrey Maille

As a consequence of global change, extreme environmental events threaten biodiversity, causing the 6th extinction. Droughts are predicted to become more severe in the future, reducing food availability and influencing the physiology of free ranging animals. Numerous studies on humans have demonstrated the significant influence of environmental stressors on cognition. Decades of studies have demonstrated impressive cognitive skills in animals under ideal conditions in captivity, but the extent to which cognition is affected by environmental stress is unknown. Increased environmental stress due to anthropologically induced climate change might impair cognitive abilities of free ranging animals, such as responses to predators, social intelligence and decision-making, and the probability of extinction of species may be significantly raised.

Surprisingly, scientists have not addressed this issue. Students of cognition typically have little experience of physiology while students of physiology typically do not consider cognition. Therefore I will investigate how cognitive tasks (attention, spatial memory) in free ranging animals are influenced by their physiological state. Strasbourg through the IPHC is an international centre for research on animal cognition and eco-physiology. Establishing the new field of eco-physiology of cognition can contribute to making Strasbourg a leading centre for research on global climate change.