Seeing Through a Dog’s Nose – Canine Nose Lecture #2
Title: The Science of Canine Olfactory Perception and Learning
Speaker: Dr. Simon Gadbois (see bio below)
Description:
Olfactory processing from an integrative perspective: Neurobiology, evolution, ecology, and psychophysics
Olfaction, in the evolutionary context, has two main functions: Finding food and finding mates. It is not surprising that olfaction is consequently closely tied to the reward and anticipation systems of the brain. Olfaction is also multidimensional, and from a “cognitive” perspective (strange word to use for a post-cognitivist, but bear with me), it comprises a number of different processes that are arguable tapping into different parts of the brain and tackle different survival functions. We will start by discussing the biological foundations of olfaction (neurobiology, evolution, ecology) and will then proceed to discuss the rarely discussed (and yet very active) field of olfactory psychophysics and the methods that are relevant (and also mostly ignored) to olfactory processing. Examples from Gadbois’ areas of research in olfaction (with canines particularly, but also with molluscs, fish, and reptiles) will be discussed in the context of wildlife conservation canines and biomedical detection and diagnosis canines.
Learning Objectives:
- The neurobiological foundations of olfaction: The brain systems
- The ecological foundations of olfaction: Finding food and finding mates
- Olfactory motivology: How learning and olfaction are tied
- The old olfactory psychophysics meets the needs of the modern scent dog
- Advanced section: Signal Detection Theory
Cost: $25.00 USD
CEU’s:
CCPDT – 2
IAABC – 2
KPA – 2
Simon Gadbois, Ph.D.is a researcher in animal behaviour and behavioural neuroscience at Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada. Early in his academic career he integrated biology (ethology), experimental animal psychology and neuroscience within a post-cognitivist perspective. A true generalist, he has studied olfaction, learning/memory and social behaviour in species of insects, molluscs (slugs and snails), fish, reptiles, birds (pigeons) and mammals (rats, dogs, red foxes, coyotes and wolves). He has studied wild canids for over 20 years and established the Canid and Reptile Behaviour and Olfaction lab at Dalhousie in 2006, a year before the closure of the Canadian Centre for Wolf Research. There he had studied the behavioural endocrinology of social behaviour in wolves and behaviour patterns in foraging behaviours comparatively in foxes, coyotes and wolves. Since 2007 his lab is engaged mostly in research on biomedical detection, diagnosis and assistance as well as tracking and trailing of species-at-risk with his wildlife conservation canines. The lab has a strong applied and methodological focus.