Background
After receiving my degree in Marine Biology in 2000 (Abel Salazar Institute of Biomedical Sciences – Porto University, Portugal), I worked on a project that focused on using a common Portuguese crab as food for octopus in aquaculture. One of my functions in the project dealt with determining the octopus shelf-life. Working on this project gave me the opportunity to discover the amazing world of cephalopods. As I was watching freshly caught octopus, I wondered about how they changed color, their skin seemed like fireworks. This experience led me to pursue my research in cephalopod behavior. I have been a PhD student since 2003, funded by the Portuguese Science and Technology Foundation.
Research Interests
Octopus, squid and cuttlefish live in very competitive environments. They are dynamic marine predators with a highly developed visual system, but their predators - teleost fishes, sea birds and marine mammals - also possess some of the best visual systems known. Not possessing external self-defence mechanisms, cephalopods take advantage of their numerous sophisticated body patterns to hide from keen visual predators. Cephalopods are masters of camouflage. They can show 20-50 body patterns (total appearance of the animal) and change them to match the background within a fraction of a second. Cephalopod skin can vary in pattern, color, brightness, contrast, and texture. Changes in visual stimuli have been shown to promote changes in the animals’ body pattern. This ability to camouflage provides a unique biological assay to study the ways these animals perceive their environment.
I am interested in the SENSORI-MOTOR AND BEHAVIORAL ASPECTS OF CRYPTIC DEFENCE IN CEPHALOPODS. The objective of my study is to derive the sensory rules of body patterning for camouflage in the European cuttlefish Sepia officinalis. These sensory rules are expected to explain how complex sensory input from the environment is reduced to a few key stimuli that produce the appropriate motor output, i.e. the behavioural decision. I am also interested in learning how and why the cuttlefish behave in the context of predator-prey interactions.
Publications
Mäthger, L. M., Chiao, C.-C., Barbosa, A., Hanlon, R. T. 2008. Color matching on natural substrates in cuttlefish, Sepia officinalis. Journal of Comparative Physiology A, 194 (6): 577-585.
Sutherland, R. L., Mäthger, L. M., Hanlon, R. T., Urbas, A. M., Stone, M. O. 2008. Cephalopod coloration model. II. Multiple layer skin effects. Journal of the Optical Society of America, 25 (8): 2044-2054.
Sutherland, R. L., Mäthger, L. M., Hanlon, R. T., Urbas, A. M., Stone, M. O. 2008. Cephalopod coloration model. I. Squid chromatophores and iridophores. Journal of the Optical Society of America, 25 (3): 588-599.
Barbosa, A., Mäthger, L. M., Buresch, K. C., Kelly, J., Chubb, C., Chiao, C.-C., and Hanlon, R. T. 2008. Cuttlefish camouflage: The effects of substrate contrast and size in evoking uniform, mottle or disruptive body patterns. Vision Research, 48: 1242-1253.
Barbosa, A., Litman, L., and Hanlon, R. T. 2008. Changeable cuttlefish camouflage is influenced by horizontal and vertical aspects of the visual background. Journal of Comparative Physiology A, 194: 405-413.
Barbosa, A., Mäthger, L. M., Chubb, C., Florio, C., Chiao, C.-C. and Hanlon, R. T. (2007). Disruptive coloration in cuttlefish: a visual perception mechanism that regulates ontogenetic adjustment of skin patterning. Journal of Experimental Biology 210, 1139-1147.
Mäthger, L. M., Chiao, C.-C., Barbosa, A., Buresch, K. C., Kaye, S. and Hanlon, R. T. (2007). Disruptive coloration elicited on controlled natural substrates in cuttlefish, Sepia officinalis. Journal of Experimental Biology 210, 2657-2666.
Mäthger, L. M., Barbosa, A., Miner, S. and Hanlon, R. T. (2006). Color blindness and contrast perception in cuttlefish (Sepia officinalis) determined by a visual sensorimotor assay. Vision Research 46, 1746-1753.
Barbosa, A.; Florio, C.; Chiao, C.C. & Hanlon, R. (2004). Visual background features that elicit mottled body patterns in cuttlefish, Sepia officinalis. Biological Bulletin 207, 154.
Vaz-Pires, P., Seixas, P. and Barbosa, A. (2004). Aquaculture potential of the common octopus (Octopus vulgaris Cuvier, 1797): a review. Aquaculture 238, 221-238.
Barbosa, A. and Vaz-Pires, P. (2004). Quality Index Method (QIM): development of a sensorial scheme for common octopus (Octopus vulgaris). Food Control 15, 161-168.
Vaz-Pires, P. and Barbosa, A. (2004). Sensory, microbiological, physical and nutritional properties of iced whole common octopus (Octopus vulgaris). Food Science and Technology/LWT Lebensm.-Wiss. u.-Technol. 37, 105–114.
Barbosa, A., Bremner, A. and Vaz-Pires, P. (2002). The meaning of shelf-life. In Safety and Quality Issues in Fish Processing, chapter 11, Woodhead Publishing Limited, Cambridge, UK, pp 173-190.
Stratoudakis, Y., Barbosa, A. and Meneses, I. (2000). Infection of sardine eggs by the prostitan endoparasite Ichthyodinium chabelardi off Portugal. Journal of Fish Biology 57, 476-482.
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