Dr Andrea Gaede
Lecturer in Locomotor Biomechanics
Department: Comparative Biomedical Sciences
Campus: Hawkshead
Research Groups: Musculoskeletal Biology, Brain Health and Behaviour, CPCS (Research Programme)
Research Centres: Structure & Motion Laboratory
Andrea is a Lecturer in Locomotor Biomechanics at the Structure & Motion Laboratory. She is a sensory neurobiologist that takes a cross-disciplinary and comparative approach to investigate mechanisms of sensory signal processing and sensorimotor control, drawing on techniques from systems neuroscience, neuroethology, and biomechanics.
Andrea holds a Bachelor's degree in Neuroscience from Vanderbilt University (Nashville, TN, USA), where she carried out biomedical and neuropharmacological research. She earned a PhD in Advanced Medicine, where her dissertation research focused on cardiorespiratory neurophysiology (Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW, Australia). Andrea then completed a postdoc at the University of British Columbia (Vancouver, BC, Canada) with a joint appointment at the University of Alberta (Edmonton, AB, Canada). This is where Andrea began to investigate visual control of flight in hummingbirds and other bird species using electrophysiological and neuroanatomical approaches. She continues to study visual motion processing, somatosensation, and multisensory integration in birds and other vertebrates with neural specialisations related to sensorimotor control.
Andrea also served as the 2017-2018 Judicial Branch Fellow for the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Science and Technology Policy Fellowship based in Washington DC. During this fellowship, she spearheaded a project developing a web-based, multi-part judicial education program for US federal judges and court employees focused on neuroscience research topics relevant to legal matters and judicial decision making.
Gaede AH, Gutiérrez-Ibáñez C, Wu PH, Pilon MC, Altshuler DL, Wylie DR. Topography of visual and somatosensory inputs to the pontine nuclei in zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata). Journal of Comparative Neurology. 2023 Nov 8.
Wylie, D. R., Gaede, A. H., Gutiérrez-Ibáñez, C., Wu, P. H., Pilon, M. C., Azargoon, S., & Altshuler, D. L. (2023). Topography of optic flow processing in olivo-cerebellar pathways in zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata). Journal of Comparative Neurology, 531(6), 640-662. DOI:
Osipova, E., Barsacchi, R., Brown, T., Sadanandan, K., Gaede, A. H., Monte, A., ... & Hiller, M. (2023). Loss of a gluconeogenic muscle enzyme contributed to adaptive metabolic traits in hummingbirds. Science, 379(6628), 185-190. DOI:
Smyth G.*, Baliga V.B.*, Gaede A. H.,*, Wylie DR, Altshuler DL. Specializations in optic flow encoding in the pretectum of hummingbirds and zebra finches. Current Biology. 2022 Jun 20;32(12):2772-9. DOI:
*shared first author
Gaede A. H., Baliga VB, Smyth G, Gutiérrez-Ibáñez C, Altshuler DL, Wylie DR. Response properties of optic flow neurons in the accessory optic system of hummingbirds versus zebra finches and pigeons. Journal of Neurophysiology. 2022 Jan 1;127(1):130-44. DOI:
Gaede, A. H.*, Gutiérrez-Ibáñez, C.*, Armstrong, M. S., Altshuler, D. L., & Wylie, D. R. Pretectal projections to the oculomotor cerebellum in hummingbirds (Calypte anna), zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata) and pigeons (Columba livia). Journal of Comparative Neurology. DOI: *shared first author
Wylie DR, Gutiérrez-Ibáñez C, Gaede AH, Altshuler DL, Iwaniuk AN. Visual-Cerebellar Pathways and Their Roles in the Control of Avian Flight. Frontiers in Neuroscience. 2018 Apr 9;12:223. Review DOI:
Gutiérrez-Ibáñez, C.*, Gaede, A. H.*, Dannish, M. R., Altshuler, D. L., & Wylie, D. R. The retinal projection to the nucleus lentiformis mesencephali in zebra finch (Taeniopygia guttata) and Anna’s hummingbird (Calypte anna). Journal of Comparative Physiology A, 1-8. DOI: *shared first author
Gaede A. H., Goller B, Lam JP, Wylie DR, Altshuler DL. Neurons Responsive to Global Visual Motion Have Unique Tuning Properties in Hummingbirds. Current Biology. 2017 Jan 23;27(2):279-285.
Wild J. M., Gaede A. H. Second tectofugal pathway in a songbird (Taeniopygia guttata) revisited: Tectal and lateral pontine projections to the posterior thalamus, thence to the intermediate nidopallium. Journal of Comparative Neurology. 2016 Apr 1;524(5):963-85.
I am the Deputy Module Leader for the Comparative Anatomy third-year BSc module. I also contribute to the Comparative Animal Locomotion (third-year BSc) and The Moving Animal (first-year BSc) modules, supervise undergraduate research projects, and mentor graduate students.