John Douglas "Jack" Pettigrew (2 October 1943
[''Who's Who in Australia 2013'', Crown Content, 2012.] - 7 May 2019) was an Australian
neuroscientist
A neuroscientist (or neurobiologist) is a scientist who has specialised knowledge in neuroscience, a branch of biology that deals with the physiology, biochemistry, psychology, anatomy and molecular biology of neurons, Biological neural network, n ...
. He was Emeritus Professor of
Physiology
Physiology (; ) is the scientific study of functions and mechanisms in a living system. As a sub-discipline of biology, physiology focuses on how organisms, organ systems, individual organs, cells, and biomolecules carry out the chemical ...
and Director of the
Vision, Touch and Hearing Research Centre at the
University of Queensland
, mottoeng = By means of knowledge and hard work
, established =
, endowment = A$224.3 million
, budget = A$2.1 billion
, type = Public research university
, chancellor = Peter Varghese
, vice_chancellor = Deborah Terry
, city = B ...
in Australia.
Research
Pettigrew's research interest was in comparative
neuroscience
Neuroscience is the scientific study of the nervous system (the brain, spinal cord, and peripheral nervous system), its functions and disorders. It is a multidisciplinary science that combines physiology, anatomy, molecular biology, development ...
. He studied a variety of different birds and mammals with modern
neuronal tracing Neuronal tracing, or neuron reconstruction is a technique used in neuroscience to determine the pathway of the neurites or neuronal processes, the axons and dendrites, of a neuron. From a sample preparation point of view, it may refer to some of th ...
techniques to unravel principles of brain organization. He was the chief proponent of the
flying primate hypothesis, which was based on the similarity between the brains of
megabats
Megabats constitute the family Pteropodidae of the order Chiroptera ( bats). They are also called fruit bats, Old World fruit bats, or—especially the genera ''Acerodon'' and ''Pteropus''—flying foxes. They are the only member of the sup ...
and
primates
Primates are a diverse order of mammals. They are divided into the strepsirrhines, which include the lemurs, galagos, and lorisids, and the haplorhines, which include the tarsiers and the simians (monkeys and apes, the latter including huma ...
. Special emphasis was placed on the visual, auditory and somatosensory systems.
Pettigrew was the first person to clarify the neurobiological basis of
stereopsis
Stereopsis () is the component of depth perception retrieved through binocular vision.
Stereopsis is not the only contributor to depth perception, but it is a major one. Binocular vision happens because each eye receives a different image becaus ...
when he described neurones sensitive to
binocular disparity Binocular disparity refers to the difference in image location of an object seen by the left and right human eye, eyes, resulting from the eyes’ horizontal separation (parallax). The brain uses binocular disparity to extract depth information from ...
. Later, he discovered that owls have independently evolved a system of binocular neurones like those found in mammals.
Pettigrew showed evidence for a role for non-visual pathways in the phenomenon of developmental
neuroplasticity
Neuroplasticity, also known as neural plasticity, or brain plasticity, is the ability of Neural circuit, neural networks in the brain to change through growth and reorganization. It is when the brain is rewired to function in some way that diffe ...
during the postnatal
critical period
In developmental psychology and developmental biology, a critical period is a maturational stage in the lifespan of an organism during which the nervous system is especially sensitive to certain environmental stimuli. If, for some reason, the org ...
.
Pettigrew used
binocular rivalry Binocular rivalry is a phenomenon of visual perception in which perception alternates between different images presented to each eye.
When one image is presented to one eye and a very different image is presented to the other (also known as dich ...
as an assay for interhemispheric switching, whose rhythm is altered in
bipolar disorder
Bipolar disorder, previously known as manic depression, is a mental disorder characterized by periods of depression and periods of abnormally elevated mood that last from days to weeks each. If the elevated mood is severe or associated with ...
.
[
]
Honours and awards
Pettigrew’s scientific work was recognized by several honours and awards, including becoming a Fellow of the Royal Society of London
The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...
( FRS)in 1987, becoming a Fellow of the fellow of the Australian Academy of Science
The Fellowship of the Australian Academy of Science is made up of about 500 Australian scientists.
Scientists judged by their peers to have made an exceptional contribution to knowledge in their field may be elected to Fellowship of the Academy ...
(FAAS) in the same year, and being awarded the Centenary Medal
The Centenary Medal is an award which was created by the Australian Government in 2001. It was established to commemorate the centenary of the Federation of Australia and to recognise "people who made a contribution to Australian society or go ...
in 2001 for service to Australian society and science in phylogeny.
Other notable activity
In the 1960s and 1970s, Pettigrew was an accomplished rock climber. His most notable climb came in 1965 when together with Bryden Allen, John Davis, and David Witham he was the first to climb the 562 m (1,844 ft) high Ball's Pyramid
Ball's Pyramid is an erosional remnant of a shield volcano and caldera lying southeast of Lord Howe Island in the Pacific Ocean. It is high, while measuring in length and only across, making it the tallest volcanic stack in the world. Bal ...
, the tallest volcanic stack
Stack may refer to:
Places
* Stack Island, an island game reserve in Bass Strait, south-eastern Australia, in Tasmania’s Hunter Island Group
* Blue Stack Mountains, in Co. Donegal, Ireland
People
* Stack (surname) (including a list of people ...
in the world.[Donald E Mitchell]
The Man from Ironbark: a profile of Professor Jack Pettigrew FRS, flamboyant sensory systems researcher and recipient of the H Barry Collin Research Medal
Clinical and Experimental Optometry 94, pp. 494–501 (2011)
References
External links
Batman's place in evolution
The man in the bat
Megabats, microbats and the most interesting gene in the genome
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pettigrew, Jack
1943 births
2019 deaths
University of Queensland faculty
University of Sydney alumni
Fellows of the Royal Society
Fellows of the Australian Academy of Science
Recipients of the Centenary Medal
Bipolar disorder researchers