RESEARCH | Stephmclean

RESEARCH PROJECTS

PhD Research

PhD Chp 4 | '20

PhD Chapter Four | 2020 Caring parents of
bi-parental species align directional biases
in the performance of parental care behaviours.
Stephanie McLean & Lesley Morrell.

This chapter aims to determine whether parental care behaviours are lateralised by examining eye use preferences in brood defense behaviour across three stages of parental care: post egg laying, early post hatch and late post hatch. This chapter uses the biparental substrate brooding cichlid, Telmatochromis temporalis.

We predict that i) individuals of both sexes will be lateralised in parental care behaviours and ii) lateral biases of individuals will be aligned at the population level, with no variation in directional biases between the sexes as a result of the need to interact and coordinate behavioural responses during bi-parental care.

Telmatochromis temporalis male and female caring for eggs in the first 10 days post hatch (newly hatched offspring attached to side of the tube).

PhD Chp 3 | '19

PhD Chapter Three | 2019 The costs and benefits of laterality for caring parents under differing reproductive states.
Stephanie McLean & Lesley Morrell.

Here we examined behavioural laterality and an associated and previously identified cost and benefit of exhibiting such lateral biases under differing reproductive conditions: while reproductive performing parental care and in a non-reproductive state.

Experimental set up used to examine efficiency in tasks requiring inter-hemispheric communication and cooperation - shoal choice with two varying sizes shoals presented in different visual hemispheres.

PhD Chp 2 | '18

PhD Chapter Two | 2018 Laterality, reproduction and parental care in three-spine sticklebacks.
Stephanie McLean & Lesley Morrell.

The cognitive advantages of lateralisation, particularly an enhanced ability to perform simultaneous information processing, 'multi-tasking', suggest that sex-specific variation in laterality could result from selection for different patterns of laterality in the caring and non-caring sex, due to the potential fitness benefits that caring parents could obtain from having a lateralised brain.

Here, we test the hypotheses that in a uniparental species i) the caring sex should be more strongly lateralised than the non-caring sex, and ii) that laterality is linked to parental care behaviour.

Three-spine stickleback courtship and reproduction.

PhD Chp 1 | '17

PhD Chapter One | 2017 Consistency in the strength of laterality in male, but not female, guppies across different behavioural contexts.
Stephanie McLean & Lesley Morrell.

Here we investigated sex differences in the pattern (direction, strength and consistency) of laterality exhibited in three behavioural contexts using guppies (Poecilia reticulata), a species in which sex differences in behaviour are well established. We examined the turning preferences of individuals detouring around a barrier to view a visual stimulus, a proxy for preferences in eye use and thus cerebral lateralization. Visual stimuli represented common behavioural contexts: an artificial object to assess exploratory behaviour, an opposite sex conspecific to examine sexual motivation and a no stimulus control.

A guppy participating in a standard detour test used to assess behavioural laterality as directional preferences in behaviour when viewing a visual stimulus.

Masters Research

MRes | '17

MRes Research Project | 2018 Feeding and associated reductions in the available aerobic scope for aerobic activity influence the spatial positioning of fish swimming in schools.
Stephanie McLean, Anna Persson, Tommy Norin & Shaun Killen.

We examined individual positioning in groups of swimming fish after feeding. We found that fish that ate the most subsequently shifted to more posterior positions within groups and that shifts in position were related to the remaining aerobic scope after feeding. The feeding-related constraints could affect leadership and group functioning.

Foraging competition between schooling minnows consuming blood worms individually introduced into
a swim flume.

Collaborations

Glasgow | '17

Glasgow | 2018 Do fish prefer to associate with conspecifics with similar metabolic rates?

Anna Persson, Stephanie McLean, Tommy Norin & Shaun Killen

This project aimed to investigate if fish can asses metabolic rate and make active choices of conspecifics to associate with, since this can have implications for schooling dynamics and survivability. We hypothesise that fish will associate with conspecifics with a low standard metabolic rate to reduce competition.

Intermittent stop flow respirometry set up used to obtain measurements of metabolic rate.
Fish pictured are minnows.