Description du sujet de thèse

To understand and adapt to its complex environment, an individual can employ multiple strategies. On the one hand, it can draw upon its own knowledge acquired through past experiences to extrapolate the consequences of ongoing events or predict the outcome of its actions. It can thus proceed by trial and error, repeating actions that have led to success and avoiding those that are not beneficial. On the other hand, it can draw upon the experience acquired by other individuals to complement its own, which allows it to save learning time and avoid the risk of harmful consequences from inappropriate behaviour. It is crucial that these different strategies, involving varying degrees of risk-taking, coexist to optimize resource exploitation while reducing the level of competition among conspecifics. Although the ability to imitate and even cooperate is well documented in many social species, inter-individual variations in the use of different strategies remain largely unexplored.
The PhD project aims to identify the individual factors influencing the use of different strategies. We will focus on two main types of endogenous factors: personality traits and cognitive skills. With an interdisciplinary focus, this project explores these inter-individual differences through a comparative approach in order to identify key, fundamental elements that are conserved or converge during evolution. To this end, we specifically intend to study the strategies employed to solve a similar problem by two highly social species, particularly distant from a phylogenetic point of view, but which are classic models for studying pro-social behaviour: bumblebees (Bombus terrestris) and humans (young children at a pre-verbal stage). The originality and success of the project therefore lies on the complementarity between experimental human sciences and animal cognition.
Seemingly capable of imitating their conspecifics, counting, experiencing emotions, and even playing, bumblebees are social insects whose cognitive abilities never cease to amaze us, although they remain a relatively understudied model worlwide. Drawing on a classic individual and multifactorial analytical approach within the social sciences and humanities, the PhD candidate will establish individual socio-cognitive profiles of bumblebees—a level of analysis currently lacking in studies on social insects—through a battery of tests conducted in a laboratory specializing in insect cognition (CRCA Toulouse). The resulting profiles will then be compared with the individuals' propensity to imitate their conspecifics. A second objective will be to verify whether these imitative behaviours observed in the laboratory are reproduced under ecological conditions. To this end, the candidate will contribute to the development of automated devices in partnership with the company BeeGuard.
Our collaborative research project provides funding for two PhDs, one focusing on bumblebees and the other on young children (with the same supervisory team for both), working in close contact. The comparative approach will allow the candidates to deepen their understanding of the individual factors influencing the use of prosocial behaviours and to be introduced to two different scientific disciplines and cultures, while also developing a multidisciplinary perspective on cognitive sciences. The theoretical and methodological advances made on each model will thus inform the research on the other model.

Contexte de travail

The PhD candidate will join the Research Center on Animal Cognition at the Center for Integrative Biology of Toulouse (CBI Toulouse). He/she will be affiliated with the Doctoral School of Biology, Health, and Biotechnology (BSB). The candidate will conduct His/her thesis under the supervision of Aurore Avargues-Weber (CRCA) and Gwenaël Kaminski (CLLE, Toulouse). Experimental studies will be carried out at the CRCA and at the CRCA's experimental apiary for the fieldwork component. The candidate will benefit from a stimulating environment in a laboratory offering expertise across various levels of insect cognition analysis, from neurobiology to the modelling of collective behaviours, including diverse behavioural approaches, comparative cognition, sociobiology, and cognitive ecology.
The project is funded and carried out within the framework of the IMITATION project (TIRIS Scaling-up, ANR PIA4 France 2030).
Additional information
Desired profile:
The candidate must hold an engineering degree and/or a Master's degree in ethology, psychology, neuroscience, or cognitive sciences. Scientific curiosity, adaptability, and the ability to work in a team will be significant assets given the interdisciplinary nature of the subject. Strong motivation and a rigorous approach to experimental studies are expected, as well as an interest in developing experimental setups and protocols. Other skills such as fluency in English (written and spoken), writing skills, and communication will also be appreciated.

It is necessary to apply via the portal https://emploi.cnrs.fr/ including:
1/ A curriculum vitae;
2/ A .pdf document including a cover letter (1 page) describing the candidate's interest in research as well as their skills and motivation in relation to the project; 1 or 2 references from previous supervisors; a copy of the Master 2 diploma or equivalent if already obtained (or, failing that, the transcripts of the Master's degree), as well as a short summary of the Master 2 thesis.
Candidates will be pre-selected based on their academic excellence and motivation for an in-person interview in Toulouse or remotely via video conference.