Newcastle University

Background

Tom Smulders was born near Antwerp, Belgium and grew up in Brecht, Belgium.

Roles and Responsibilities

2006-2008 Stage 2 Director for the BSc in Psychology

2008-present Chair of the Seminar Committee of the Institute of Neuroscience

2003-present Coordinator Psychology Seminar Series

Qualifications

2003-2005 Post-Graduate Certificate in Academic Practice, Newcastle University, UK

1992-1998 Ph.D. in Biopsychology at Cornell University, USA. (Supervisor: Prof. Timothy J. DeVoogd)

1990-1992 MSc in Zoology at Antwerp University, Belgium

1988-1990 BSc in Biology at Antwerp University, Belgium

Previous Positions

2000-2002 Post-doctoral researcher, Department of Neurobiology, Duke University Medical Center, USA (Supervisor: Prof. Erich D. Jarvis)

1998-2000 Post-doctoral researcher, Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, USA (Supervisor: Prof. Robert E. Hampson)

Memberships

Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour
British Neuroscience Association
British Psychological Society
International Society for Neuroethology
J.B. Johnston Club (Comparative Vertebrate Neuroanatomy)
Natural History Society of Northumbria

Languages

Fluent in spoken and written Dutch
Fluent in spoken and written English
Fluent in spoken and written French
Reading and conversational skills in German
Notions of Italian and Latin

Informal Interests

Ballroom Dancing; Science Fiction and Fantasy

Research Interests

My research focuses on different aspects of spatial information processing, specifically in food-hoarding animals. In the spirit of true NeuroEcology, I approach this topic from both an ultimate (evolutionary, ecological) and a proximate (behavioural and neural mechanisms) point of view.

From the ultimate point of view, I ask questions about the evolutionary origin of food-hoarding behaviour, how it is maintained in a population and which mechanisms have evolved to make it adaptive.

From the proximate point of view, I study both behavioural and neural mechanisms involved in food hoarding. Behaviourally, our group is interested in the strategies employed by food-hoarding birds to prevent loss of caches and to maximize their own benefits, which seem to rely for a great deal (but not exclusively) on memory for individual cache locations. Neurobiologically, we are interested in the neural basis of this memory, using a range of techniques, from purely anatomical measures (cell numbers, neurogenesis, gene expression patterns), through interference with function (permanent and temporary inactivation) to (in the future) electrophysiological recording from the relevant brain areas.

Other Expertise

Bird song and the neural basis of hearing and singing in birds.

Current Work

For more information, see my web page.

Esteem Indicators

2008- Reviewing Editor of Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience

2008-2009 Guest Editor of a Special Issue on “Integrating Ecology, Psychology, and Neurobiology Within a Food-hoarding Paradigm” in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B

2008-2009 Guest Editor of a Special Feature on “Brain Evolution” in Biology Letters

2008-2010 Editorial Board of Biology Letters (Royal Society of London)

2007 Invited participant in the INCF Workshop on Neuroanatomical Nomenclature and Taxonomy

2006-present Fellow of the Higher Education Academy

1992-1993 Philips Fellow of the Belgian American Educational Foundation (BAEF)

Funding

2009 Undergraduate Summer Research Scholarship ASAB: Evaluation of the rate of hippocampal neuronal death and its relevance to seasonal changes in memory use by willow tits (Poecile montanus) £1,520

2009-2013 DEFRA: Quantifying the subjective state of feed restricted broiler chickens using behavioural and neurochemical measures: £706,792 (Co-investigator in collaboration with Scottish Agricultural College and Roslin Institute)

2008 Royal Society Conference Grant: £1,285

2008-2009 BBSRC Research Equipment Initiative grant: Climate-controlled chambers for the study of physiology and behaviour £146,000.

2007 Undergraduate Summer Research Scholarship Nuffield Foundation: A quantitative comparison of the hippocampal formation of storing and non-storing bird species. £1,360

2006 Undergraduate Summer Research Scholarship Nuffield Foundation: Examining the incorporation of new neurons in adult brains. £1,240

2006-2010 EPSRC Joint Project Grant: CARMEN (Code Analysis, Repository and Modeling for e-Neuroscience). £3,800,000 (co-investigator in multi-university collaboration)

2005-2006 Catherine Cookson Foundation Grant: What is the function of new brain cells? £4,000

2005-2008 BBSRC Research Grant: Natural regulation of adult neuronal recruitment: comparing food-hoarding and non-hoarding songbirds. £307,624

2005-2008 BBSRC Strategic Studentship: Encoding of Episodic-like Memory in the Hippocampus of Food-hoarding Birds. £46,000

2005 Undergraduate Summer Research Scholarship Nuffield Foundation: Olfaction in magpies. £1,400

2004-2005 BBSRC Research Grant: Neural Substrates for Spatial and Non-Spatial Memory in Food-Storing Birds (collaboration with Dr. S. Healy, Univ. of Edinburgh): £134,845

2003-2006 BBSRC Committee Studentship: Cognitive Strategies for Efficient Cache Distribution in Scatter-Hoarding Birds. £39,120

Undergraduate Teaching

PSY2007 Biological Psychology: Sex, Drugs, Rhythms and Blues
PSY2012 Practice of Psychology
PSY3096-PSY3097 Undergraduate Research Projects in Psychology
MSM3097 Undergraduate Research Projects in Zoology

Postgraduate Teaching

NEU8002 Cognitive Neuroscience

• Holland SM, Smulders TV. Do humans use episodic memory to solve a What-Where-When memory task?. Animal Cognition 2011, 14(1), 95-102.
• Feenders G, Smulders TV. Magpies can use local cues to retrieve their food caches. Animal Cognition 2011, 14(2), 235-243.
• Echtermeyer C, Smulders TV, Smith VA. Causal pattern recovery from neural spike train data using the Snap Shot Score. Journal of Computational Neuroscience 2010, 29(1-2), 231-252.
• Smulders TV. Darwin Celebrations Highlight Brain Evolution. Brain, Behavior and Evolution 2010, 75(1), 8.
• Pravosudov VV, Smulders TV. Integrating ecology, psychology and neurobiology within a food-hoarding paradigm. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 2010, 365(1542), 859-867.
• Roth TC, Brodin A, Smulders TV, LaDage LD, Pravosudov VV. Is bigger always better? A critical appraisal of the use of volumetric analysis in the study of the hippocampus. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 2010, 365(1542), 915-931.
• Smulders TV, Gould KL, Leaver LA. Using ecology to guide the study of cognitive and neural mechanisms of different aspects of spatial memory in food-hoarding animals. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 2010, 365(1542), 883-900.
• Zinkivskay A, Nazir F, Smulders TV. What-Where-When memory in magpies (Pica pica). Animal Cognition 2009, 12(1), 119-125.
• Smulders TV. Darwin 200: Special Feature on Brain Evolution Introduction. Biology Letters 2009, 5(1), 105-107.
• Smulders TV. The relevance of brain evolution for the biomedical sciences. Biology Letters 2009, 5(1), 138-140.
• Feenders G, Smulders T. Episodic-like memory in food-hoarding birds. In: Dere, E; Easton, A; Nade, L; Huston, JP, ed. Handbook of Episodic Memory. London: Elsevier Science, 2008, pp.197-216.
• Male L, Smulders T. Hyper-dispersed cache distributions reduce pilferage: A laboratory study. Journal of Avian Biology 2008, 39(2), 170-177.
• Male LH, Smulders TV. Hyperdispersed cache distributions reduce pilferage: a field study. Animal Behaviour 2007, 73(4), 717-726.
• Male LH, Smulders TV. Memory decay and cache site preferences in hoarding coal tits - A laboratory study. Behaviour 2007, 144(6), 693-710.
• Male LH, Smulders TV. Memory for food caches: Not just for retrieval. Behavioral Ecology 2007, 18(2), 456-459.
• Smith LS, Austin J, Baker S, Borisyuk R, Eglen S, Feng J, Gurney K, Jackson T, Kaiser M, Overton P, Panzeri S, Quian Quiroga R, Schultz SR, Sernagor E, Smith VA, Smulders TV, Stuart L, Whittington M, Ingram C. The CARMEN e-Science pilot project: Neuroinformatics work packages. In: Proceedings of the UK e-Science All Hands Meeting. 2007, Nottingham, UK: National e-Science Centre.
• Smulders TV. A multi-disciplinary approach to understanding hippocampal function in food-hoarding birds. Reviews in the Neurosciences 2006, 17(1-2), 53-69.
• Smith VA, Yu J, Smulders TV, Hartemink AJ, Jarvis ED. Computational inference of neural information flow networks. PLoS Computational Biology 2006, 2(11), 1436-1449.
• Smulders TV, Lisi MD, Tricomi E, Otter KA, Chruszcz B, Ratcliffe LM, DeVoogd TJ. Failure to detect seasonal changes in the song system nuclei of the black-capped chickadee (Poecile atricapillus). Journal of Neurobiology 2006, 66(9), 991-1001.
• Ferreira ARJ, Smulders TV, Sameshima K, Mello CV, Jarvis ED. Vocalizations and associated behaviors of the sombre hummingbird (Aphantochroa cirrhochloris) and the rufous-breasted hermit (Glaucis hirsutus). Auk 2006, 123(4), 1129-1148.
• Jarvis ED, Güntürkün O, Bruce LL, Csillag A, Karten HJ, Kuenzel W, Medina L, Paxinos G, Perkel DJ, Shimizu T, Striedter GF, Wild JM, Ball GF, Dugas-Ford J, Durand S, Hough G, Husband S, Kubikova L, Lee DW, Mello CV, Powers A, Siang C, Smulders TV, Wada K, White SA, Yamamoto K, Yu J, Reiner A, Butler AB. Avian brains and a new understanding of vertebrate brain evolution. Nature Reviews Neuroscience 2005, 6(2), 151-159.
• Reiner A, Perkel DJ, Bruce LL, Butler AB, Csillag A, Kuenzel W, Medina L, Paxinos G, Shimizu T, Striedter G, Wild M, Ball GF, Durand S, Guturkun O, Lee DW, Mello CV, Powers A, White SA, Hough G, Kubikova L, Smulders TV, Wada K, Dugas-Ford J, Husband S, Yamamoto K, Yu J, Siang C, Jarvis ED. Revised nomenclature for avian telencephalon and some related brainstem nuclei. Journal of Comparative Neurology 2004, 473(3), 337-414.
• Reiner A, Perkel DJ, Bruce LL, Butler AB, Csillag A, Kuenzel W, Medina L, Paxinos G, Shimizu T, Striedter G, Wild M, Ball GF, Durand S, Guturkun O, Lee DW, Mello CV, Powers A, White SA, Hough G, Kubikova L, Smulders TV, Wada K, Dugas-Ford J, Husband S, Yamamoto K, Yu J, Siang C, Jarvis ED. Revised Nomenclature for Avian Telencephalon and Some Related Brainstem Nuclei. Journal of Comparative Neurology 2004, 473(3), 377-414.
• Smulders TV. [Book review] Neurobiology of Spatial Behaviour; Jeffery, KJ (ed.). Animal Behaviour 2004, 86(2), 433-434.
• Shiflett MW, Smulders TV, Benedict L, DeVoogd TJ. Reversible inactivation of the hippocampal formation in food-storing black-capped chickadees (Poecile atricapillus). Hippocampus 2003, 13(4), 437-444.
• Jarvis ED, Smith VA, Wada K, McElroy M, Smulders TV, Rivas MV, Carninci P, Hayashisaki Y, Dietrich F, Wu X, Yu J, Wang PP, Hartemink AJ. A framework for integrating the songbird brain. Journal of Comparative Physiology A 2002, 188(11-12), 961-980.
• Smulders TV. Natural Breeding Conditions and Artificial Increases in Testosterone Have Opposite Effects on the Brains of Adult Male Songbirds: A Meta-analysis. Hormones and Behavior 2002, 41(2), 156-169.
• Shiflett MW, Gould KL, Smulders TV, DeVoogd TJ. Septum volume and food-storing behavior are related in parids. Journal of Neurobiology 2002, 51(3), 215-222.
• Darlington RB, Smulders TV. Problems with residual analysis. Animal Behaviour 2001, 62(3), 599-602.
• Smulders TV, Hampson RE. Beyond the cognitive map: from place cells to episodic memory; Redish, AD [book review]. Quarterly Review of Biology 2000, 75(4), 491-492.
• Smulders TV, Casto JM, Nolan V, Ketterson ED, DeVoogd TJ. Effects of captivity and testosterone on the volumes of four brain regions in the dark-eyed junco (Junco hyemalis). Journal of Neurobiology 2000, 43(3), 244-253.
• Smulders TV, DeVoogd TJ. Expression of immediate early genes in the hippocampal formation of the black-capped chickadee (Poecile atricapillus) during a food-hoarding task. Behavioural Brain Research 2000, 114(1-2), 39-49.
• Smulders TV, Shiflett MW, Sperling AJ, DeVoogd TJ. Seasonal changes in neuron numbers in the hippocampal formation of a food-hoarding bird: The black-capped chickadee. Journal of Neurobiology 2000, 44(4), 414-422.
• Smulders TV, DeVoogd TJ. The avian hippocampal formation and the memory for hoarded food: Spatial learning out in the real world. In: Bolhuis, JJ, ed. Brain, Perception, Memory. Advances in Cognitive Neuroscience. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000, pp.127-148.
• Smulders TV. A game theoretical model of the evolution of food hoarding: Applications to the Paridae. American Naturalist 1998, 151(4), 356-366.
• Van der Linden A, Verhoye M, Vanaudekerke J, Peeters R, Eens M, Newman SW, Smulders TV, Balthazart J, DeVoogd TJ. Non invasive in vivo anatomical studies of the oscine brain by high resolution mri microscopy. Journal of Neuroscience Methods 1998, 81(1-2), 45-52.
• Smulders TV, Dhondt AA. How much memory do tits need?. Trends in Ecology & Evolution 1997, 12(11), 417-418.
• Smulders TV, Sasson AD, Devoogd TJ. Seasonal variation in hippocampal volume in a food-storing bird, the black-capped chickadee. Journal of Neurobiology 1995, 27(1), 15-25.