Anna Balkenius

Assistant prof/PhD Chemical ecology V building +46 40- 41 53 00 +46 702-16 70 21 Fax  +46 40 46 19 91 anna.balkenius@slu.se

Postal address Dept. of Plant Protection Biology  Box 102 SE-230 53 Alnarp Sweden Visiting address                         Delivery address Sundsvägen 14                           Växtskyddsvägen 3

Education

Junior research fellow, 100 % research

Research projects

My studies involve higher neural processing in the brain of hawkmoths and the interactions between colour and odour. Odour and colour are two important sensory modalities used in flower searching. Some studies indicate that animals rely mostly on vision while other studies have shown that olfaction seem to be more important. However, since flowers are multi-modal stimuli, we have to assume that insect pollinators use several sensory modalities to find them. I combine behavioural methods and optical imaging to investigate the multimodal processing in the insect. I also study classical and instrumental conditioning in hawkmoths.

You are most welcome to investigate colour and vision in insects as a master project.