Stephanie McLean
PhD Researcher in Biological Sciences
NEWS
May 2020
​Bio Letters | 20'
"Consistency in the strength of laterality in male, but not female, guppies across different behavioural contexts" published in Biology Letters. Read full paper here!
March 2020
FSBI | 20'
Abstract accepted for a talk at the Fisheries Society of the British Isles annual symposium "Fish in a Dynamic World" 2020 at Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, UK.
February 2020
ASAB | 20'
Abstract accepted for a talk at the Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour Annual Easter Meeting 2020 at Swansea University, Swansea, UK.
January 2020
Hull PGR | 20'
Awarded best Oral Presentation Prize for my talk entitled: "Predictable males & unpredictable females: sex differences in the consistency of laterality" at the Hull PGR internal conference 2020, University of Hull, Hull, UK.
January 2020
Hull PGR | 20'
Hull PGR Conference Organiser
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Hull PGR is a student organised internal conference that highlights the work of post graduate students from the University of Hull. The conference showcases work from the the biology and geography and geology departments as well as the energy and environment institute. As part of a team consisting of six post graduate students from the University of Hull, I have organised a free one day conference that showcases the work of postgraduate students comprising of oral presentations, poster presentations and flash talks combined with invited guest speakers and prizes for the best presentation of the day.
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April 2019
ASAB | 19'
ASAB Easter Meeting 2019
University of York, York, UK
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Poster presentation
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"Laterality, the partitioning of information processing into specific brain hemispheres, is widespread across animal taxa. Substantial unexplained variation in this trait exists, particularly between the sexes, despite multiple identified advantages of lateralisation. Here, we demonstrate a relationship between laterality (measured as directional biases), reproduction and parental care behaviours. Using three-spine sticklebacks Gasterosteus aculeatus, a species with uniparental male care, we showed that individuals of the caring sex (males) were more strongly lateralised than those of the non-caring sex (females) during reproduction, and that males that had cared for offspring were more strongly lateralised than their non-caring counterparts. Our findings suggest that fitness related behaviours that vary between the sexes, including reproduction and parental care, are significant but previously unidentified sources of variation in laterality."
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Conference travel grant obtained from ASAB for attendance.
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March 2019
Hull | 19'
Invited talk at parental care seminar
University of Hull, Hull, UK
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Presented my research along with other members of the parental care research cluster at the University of Hull and Dr. Nick Royle (University of Exeter).
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January 2019
Hull PGR | 19'
Hull PGR 2019
University of Hull, Hull, UK
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Oral presentation
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"Cerebral lateralisation, the division of differential information processing into separate brain hemispheres, is widespread across animal taxa. Although lateralisation is selectively advantageous, substantial variation in lateralisation exists particularly between the sexes. The underlying drivers of such variation are poorly understood and studies investigating the link between laterality and behaviours that vary between the sexes have been largely overlooked. Here, we investigated the relationship between laterality and parental care using a species that exhibits uniparental male care, Gasterosteus aculeatus. Specifically, we wanted to determine if (i) there is a sex difference in laterality within and/or out with the breeding season and (ii) if laterality varies across different stages of the breeding season.To do this, laterality was assessed, as directional biases of individuals detouring around a barrier to view a visual stimuli (a shelter), at various stages of the breeding season: with eggs and after laying in females, after nest building and parental care in males and within and out with the breeding season in both sexes. Within breeding season males were more strongly lateralised than females, however no differences were evident out with breeding season. Additionally, stage of the breeding season influenced the strength of laterality in males, with caring males exhibiting stronger lateralisation than non-caring males and males out with the breeding season. Laterality has been shown to impact behaviours tightly associated with fitness. However, these findings suggest that fitness related behaviours that vary between the sexes could represent a key, but previously unidentified driver of sex specific variation in laterality."
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January 2019
Hull PGR Conference Organiser
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Hull PGR is a student organised internal conference that highlights the work of post graduate students from the University of Hull. The conference showcases work from the the biology and geography and geology departments as well as the energy and environment institute. As part of a team consisting of six post graduate students from the University of Hull, we organised a free one day conference comprising of oral presentations and poster presentations combined with invited guest speakers and prizes for the best presentations of the day.
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Hull PGR | 19'
July 2018
SEB| 18'
SEB Annual symposium 2018
Florence, Italy
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Poster presentation
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"Group living is ubiquitous among animals, but the exact benefits of group living experienced by individual group mates is related to their spatial location within the overall group. Individual variation in behavioral traits and nutritional state is known to affect interactions between individuals and their social group, but physiological mechanisms underpinning collective animal behavior remain largely unexplored. Here, we show that while fish at the front of moving groups are most successful at capturing food items, these individuals then show a systematic, post-feeding movement toward the rear of groups. Using observations of fish feeding in groups coupled with estimates of metabolic rate in fish consuming different meal sizes, we demonstrate that the magnitude of this shift in spatial position is directly related to the aerobic metabolic scope remaining after accounting for energetic costs of digestion. While previous work has shown that hungry individuals occupy anterior positions in moving groups, our results show that the metabolic demand of food processing reduces the aerobic capacity available for locomotion in individuals that eat most, thus preventing them from maintaining leading positions. This basic trade-off between feeding and locomotor capacity could fundamentally dictate the spatial position of individuals within groups, perhaps obviating the role of individual traits in determining spatial preferences over shorter timescales (e.g., hours to days). This may be a general constraint for individuals within animal collectives, representing a key, yet overlooked, mediator of group functioning that could affect leadership, social information transfer, and group decision making."
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July 2018
The Scientist | 18'
MRes research published as a news article in The Scientist.
"Satiated fish swim at the back of the pack"
Read the article here!
April 2018
ASAB Easter Meeting 2018
University of Plymouth, Plymouth, UK
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Poster presentation
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"Laterality, the division of brain functions into separate hemispheres, is widespread across animal taxa. Lateralized individuals exhibit cognitive advantages yet substantial variation in laterality exists, particularly between the sexes. Why variation is maintained is unknown as few studies consider differences in lateralized behaviours between the sexes, and their underlying selection pressures, across different contexts. We investigated if Poecilia reticulata exhibited sex differences in the direction, strength and consistency of lateralization. We assessed the turning preferences of individuals detouring around a barrier to view visual stimuli representative of different behavioural contexts: an artificial object of familiar colour, an opposite sex conspecific and a no stimulus control. While no sex differences were evident in the direction or strength of laterality, consistency in the strength of laterality varied between the sexes. Individuals of both sexes consistently detoured in one direction, but the strength of laterality exhibited by males was more predictable than females across contexts. This suggests that predictability of lateralization across ecologically relevant scenarios represents a key, but previously unexplored, source of variation between the sexes."
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Conference travel grant obtained from ASAB for attendance.
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ASAB | 18'
March 2018
MRes research published as a news article in Sci X (phys.org).
"Consuming a large meal temporarily costs dominant animals their leadership position"
Read the article here!
Sci X | 18'
March 2018
Current Biology | 18'
MRes research published in Current Biology (graphical abstract below).
"Metabolic Costs of Feeding Predictively Alter the Spatial Distribution of Individuals in Fish Schools"
Read full paper here!
