Lecturer

I am currently working as a lecturer in Environmental Physiology and Animal Behaviour at Manchester Metropolitan University.

My research interests are in the fields of Behavioural Neuroscience and Sensory Ecology, focussing on the behaviour and physiology of  vibrissal touch sensing and locomotion. In particular my research focuses on answering questions in the following areas:

 - characterisation of sensing behaviours  and locomotion

 - development of locomotion and sensing

 - evolution of touch sensing

 - measuring the effects of neurodegeneration on sensing and locomotion

Management Responsibilities

• External Supervisor for Kendra Arkley, PhD Student, studying the relationship between locomotion and whisking in rat. Submission due 2013.
• Supervisor for James Cameron, PhD Student, studying the effect of protein glycation on muscle fibres in aging
• Placement Coordinator for the Division of Biology and Conservation Ecology

Recent External Roles

• Associate Editor of Special Topic in Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience
• Associate Editor of Special Topic in Frontiers in Neurorobotics
• Member of the Grants Committee for the British Ecological Society (BES)

Web sites

• http://www.abrg.group.shef.ac.uk/people/robyn/
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFj-Xg8LF0E
• http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/18237655
• http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/21442501

Teaching Specialisms

• Environmental Physiology teaching on the units: Foundation Biology (FB), Genetics, Adaptation and Diversity (GAD), Comparative and Environmental Physiology (CEP)
  
  
• Comparative Animal Behaviour teaching on the units: Animal Behaviour (AB), Tutorials and Fieldwork (T&F), Evolution and Behaviour (E&B)
  
  
• Behavioural Neuroscience teaching on the unit: Brain and Cognition (B&C)
  
  
• Zoo Conservation Biology Unit leader for Zoo Conservation Biology (ZCB)
  
  
• Statistics teaching on the unit: Research Design and Analysis (RDA)

Research Interests

• My research has mainly focussed on characterising the behaviour and physiology of whisker touch systems in mammals. Specific projects I am involved in are:
  
  
• Comparative physiology of whisker touch including whisker muscle studies in collaboration with the Weizmann Institute, Israel.
• Comparative active touch behaviours focusing on rats, mice, dormice, opossums, harbour seals, sealions and humans; in collaboration with the University of Sheffield, UK, Wildwood Trust, UK, Blackpool Zoo, UK and the Marine Science Center, Germany.
• Evolution of sensing strategies with a focus on rodents, in collaboration with Wildwood Trust, Kent, UK and Dr Matthew Sullivan, MMU
• Behavioural measures of disease with a focus on motor neuron disease and aging in collaboration with the Department of Neuroscience at the University of Sheffield, UK
• Species sensory capabilities and conservation
• Bio-inspired robotics
• Video analysis tools for measuring behaviour
• Development of sensing strategies
  
  Funding
  • - Daad Academic Postdoctoral Research Stay (German Academic Exchange Scheme)
  • - Research Accelerator Grant (MMU New Researcher Grant)
  • - British Ecological Society (Project Grant)

Selected Publications

Grant, R.A., Haidarliu, S., Kennerley, N.J. & Prescott, T.J. (2013). The evolution of active vibrissal sensing in mammals: evidence from vibrissal musculature and function in the marsupial opossum Monodelphis domestica. Journal of Experimental Biology.

Grant, R.A., Weiskotten, S., Wengst, N., Prescott, T.J., Dehnhardt, G. (2013). Vibrissal touch sensing in the harbour seal (Phoca vitulina): how do seals judge size? Journal of Comparative Physiology A,199(6):521-533. In Special Issue on the Sensory Biology of Aquatic Mammals

Grant, R.A., Sperber, A.L. & Prescott, T.J. (2012). The role of orienting in vibrissal touch sensing . Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience , 6:39 doi: 10.3389/fnbeh.2012.00039. In Special Issue on Active Touch Sensing.

Grant, R.A., Mitchinson, B., & Prescott, T.J. (2012). The development of whisker control in rats in relation to locomotion. Developmental Psychobiology, 54(2):151-168

Prescott, T. J., Mitchinson, B., & Grant, R.A. (2011). Vibrissal behavior and function. Scholarpedia 6(10):6642

Mitchinson, B., Grant, R.A., Arkley, K.P., Perkon, I., & Prescott, T.J. (2011). Active vibrissal sensing in rodents and marsupials. Philosophical Transactions B. 366(1581): 3037-3048

Gyory, G., Rankov, V., Gordon, G., Perkon, I., Mitchinson, B., Grant, R., & Prescott, T. (2010). An algorithm for automatic tracking of rat whiskers. Proc. Int. Workshop on Visual observation and Analysis of Animal and Insect Behavior (VAIB), Istanbul, in conjunction with ICPR 2010.

Grant, R., Mitchinson, B., Fox, C., & Prescott, T.J. (2009). Active touch sensing in the rat: Anticipatory and regulatory control of whisker movements during surface exploration. Journal of Neurophysiology, 101: 862-874

Mitchinson, B., Martin, C. J., Grant, R. A., & Prescott, T. J. (2007). Feedback Control in Active Sensing: Rat Exploratory Whisking is Modulated by Environmental Contact. Royal Society Proc (B) Biol. Sci., 274(1613), 1035-1041.