Alycia
Valvandrin
Doctoral Researcher, Physiology and Genetics
Doctoral Researcher, Department of Biology

Areas of expertise

Behaviour
Cognition
Neurology
Evolution
Adaptation
Plasticity
Hypoxia

Biography

I completed my MSc at the European University Institute of the Sea in Brest, France, focusing on marine biological sciences and conducted my M2 thesis at the Anttila Lab. I am currently delving deeper into the questions raised during my M2 thesis by pursuing a PhD on the impact of hypoxia within and across generations on the behaviour, cognition, and brain of three-spined stickleback.

Research

My PhD aims to uncover the effects of plasticity and adaptation to fluctuating hypoxia on three different aspects of behaviour: their potential to evolve, their cognitive abilities, and their brain volume and neurogenesis – the central element in the development of behaviour. The main purpose of my research is to gain a better understanding of how environmental changes, such as hypoxia, impact aquatic species in a context of current global changes and anthropogenic pressures, and determine if aquatic species will be able to cope to these changes over different time scales.