Biography
Research
Gabrielle is a comparative psychologist and a behavioural ecologist with a keen interest in the development, function and evolution of cognition through the study of individual differences within species. She is currently investigating the interplay between the microbial community in the gut (microbiome) and host behaviour and cognition and has used both great tits (Parus major) and pond snails (Lymnaea stagnalis) as study systems. As the foundations of her research depend on good measures of cognitive traits, she has focused on developing rigorous cognitive tasks to investigate causes and consequences of variation in intelligence in wild populations. Other interests include predator-prey interactions and her doctoral work investigated how wild birds (rooks, jackdaws, crows and great tits) responded to where others are looking (i.e. gaze sensitivity), and how this influences decision-making when foraging, finding nesting locations, guarding chicks and escaping predators.
Publications
Davidson, GL, Cooke, A, Johnson, C, Quinn, J. (2018) The microbiome as a driver of individual variation in cognition and functional behaviour. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B. 373(1756). https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2017.0286
Davidson, GL, Reichert, MS, Crane, JMS, O’Shea, W, Quinn, JL. (2018) Repeatable aversion across threat types is linked with life history traits but is dependent on how aversion is measured. Royal Society Open Science. 5(2):172218
Davidson, GL, Clayton, NS, Thornton, A. (2017). Evolution of iris colour in relation to cavity nesting and parental care in passerine birds. Biology Letters. 13:1
Davidson, GL, Miller, R, Loissel, E, Cheke, L, Clayton, NS. (2017) The development of support intuitions and object causality in juvenile Eurasian jays (Garrulus glandarius). Scientific Reports 7: 40062.
Davidson, GL & Clayton, NS. (2015). New perspectives in gaze sensitivity research. Learning and Behavior. DOI 10.3758/s13420-015-0204-z.
Davidson, G, Clayton, NS, Thornton, A. (2015) Wild jackdaws (Corvus monedula) recognise individual humans and may respond to gaze direction with defensive behaviour. Animal Behaviour, 108:17-24.
Davidson, GL, Clayton, NS, Thornton, A. (2014) Salient eyes deter conspecific nest intruders in wild jackdaws (Corvus monedula). Biology Letters. 10:1-4.
Davidson, GL, Butler, S, Fernández-Juricic, E, Thornton, A, Clayton, NS. (2013) Gaze sensitivity: function and mechanisms from sensory and cognitive perspectives. Animal Behaviour, 87:3-15.
Michael S. Reichert, MS, Crofts, SJ, Davidson, GL, Firth, JA, Kulahci, IG, Quinn ,JL (2020) Multiple factors affect discrimination learning performance, but not between-individual variation, in wild mixed-species flocks of birds. Royal Society Open Science. 7:192107. http://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.192107
Helden, A.J., Morley, G.J., Davidson, G.L., Turner, E.C. (2018) What can we do for urban insect biodiversity? Applying lessons from ecological research. Zoosymposia. 12: 51-63
Davidson, GL (2017) Directed versus averted gaze. Encyclopedia of Animal Cognition and Behavior. 1-3
Davidson, GL, Murphy, SM, Polke, JM, Davis, MB, Houlden, H, Reilly, MM, collaborators of the MRC Centre for Neuromuscular Diseases (2012) Frequency of mutations in the genes associated with hereditary sensory and autonomic neuropathy in a UK cohort. Journal of Neurology. 259(8):1673-85.
Other Professional Activities
Collaborators:
Dr Sarah Dalesman - Aberystwyth University
Dr Sarah Knowles, University of Oxford
Dr Josh Firth, University of Oxford
Shane Somers, University College Cork
Aura Raulo, University of Oxford
Professor Catherine Stanton - APC Microbiome Ireland
Dr Crystal Johnson - APC Microbiome Ireland
Niamh Wiley - APC Microbiome Ireland
PIs/Mentors:
Professor Nicola Clayton - University of Cambridge
Professor John Quinn - University College Cork
Dr Alex Thornton - University of Exeter
Professor Henry Houlden - Institute of Neurology, University College London
Current Phd Students:
Amy Cooke - University College Cork
Jennifer Coomes - University College Cork
