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  • Welcome
  • Research Areas
  • Study Systems
  • Research Outputs
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    Dr. Josh A. Firth 

    NERC Research Fellow - Oxford University

     

    [Collaboration network - click for full image]

  • Research Areas

    Behaviour & Social Networks; Health & Psychiatry; Ecology & Evolution

    Behaviour & Social Networks

    How behaviour shapes social networks and govern social processes

    Why do individuals differ in their behaviour, relationships, and social network positions?

     

    How do behaviours and social networks shape individuals lives, health and fitness?

     

    What are the consequences of social connections for disease transmission and the spread of new behaviours?

    Ecology & Evolution

    Ecological and evolutionary consequences of individual behaviour in natural populations

    How does natural selection shape the traits and behaviours of individuals in wild populations?

     

    What influences selection and what are the consequences?

     

    How does demography interact with environmental factors and individual behaviour?

    Health & Psychiatry

    Identifying what indicators, and what influences, health and mental wellbeing

    How does behaviour (e.g. social & physical activity, internet usage, nutrition) influence mental health?

     

    Why do psychiatric conditions persist & can technological advances help mitigate them?

     

    Which simple measures can we use to best indicate complex conditions?

  • Study Systems

    Research systems, approaches, data, and people

    Virtual Worlds

    emergent processes, simulation models, internet

    The virtual world, and its interface with the real world, is a useful tool for understanding the underpinnings of behaviour and emergent consequences. I am particularly interested in: (1) Using computer simulations of individual-level behaviour to create social systems and assess the meaning of individuals' network positions, how systems can evolve, and how social processes (e.g. contagions) can act on them. (2) Taking empirical data and applying 'null models' to determine which specific components of the real-world data (e.g. time, space, individual traits) are important in shaping the observed patterns. (3) Putting real organisms into virtual worlds to examine how simple rules directly shape real-world behaviour. (4) Understanding how humans respond to virtual settings, particularly in how the online-world may change social interaction patterns, and the consequences of this.

    Natural Avian Populations

    social relationships, behaviour, ecology

    The long-term study of wild birds at Wytham Woods, Oxford, provides an ideal model system for examining social behaviour in natural populations. In particular, the great tit population has been monitored since the 1940's, meaning some individuals today can be traced back 35 generations. This long-term pedigree enables detailed examination of how natural selection may act to shape traits, and how individuals' traits are shaped by genetics and environmental effects. Radio-Frequency Identification tracking of these birds began in 2007, meaning data detailing the winter flocking behaviour of over 10,000 individuals now provides large-scale observational information on their social behaviour. Finally, through developing RFID devices which interact with individuals in real-time, I also use experiments to manipulate social associations between individuals to test the consequences of sociality.

    Health Research

    health, mental wellbeing, physical activity

    As the medical sciences meet with the era of Big Data and tracking technologies, various opportunities to exist to gain an understanding of how individual behaviour relates to health across diverse contexts. In collaboration with biomedical researchers and psychiatrists, I work on various analytical and conceptual lines of research including implementing big datasets to assess contagious disease control, human health (particularly in relation to activity patterns and mental wellbeing), and the consequences of technology usage. These collaborations with the practitioners and researchers working in these areas have fortunately led to realised impact in terms of (i) informing the UK response to the COVID-19 pandemic, (ii) contributing to the design of physical heath interventions for people with mental illness, (iii) the development of new tools for measuring activity of people in relation to mental health, and (iv) use in training health professions e.g. through featuring in clinical training textbooks and as part of clinician training courses.

    Mammalian Systems

    microbiome, ageing, conservation

    Using different systems is beneficial for making specialised insights (i.e. answering questions that specific systems are well suited to), and also for making generalised insights (i.e. by finding common patterns). I'm currently involved in various systems, such as (1) using open-access human tracking data for predicting how diseases may spread and designing bespoke intervention procedures to control them (working particularly with Lewis Spurgin & Adam Kucharski), (2) A long-term study of red deer population based on the isle of rum for understanding how environmental and individual factors shapes social networks (working particularly with Greg Albery & Dan Nussey) (3) A wild mouse population in Oxford provides a system for examining how individuals' microbiome is shaped by social behaviour (working with Sarah Knowles, Aura Raulo & Tim Coulson). (3) Peruvian local fisheries are particularly relevant to conservation, and allow examination of how positive behaviours can spread through social networks (working with Will Arlidge & E.J. Milner-Gulland).

  • Research Outputs

    Publications, Seminars, Professional Activities, Grants, & Media Coverage

    Selected Recent Publications:

    (Click here for full list of publications)

    • Albery GF, Clutton-Brock TH, Morris A, Morris S, Pemberton JM,, Nussey D & Firth JA. 2022. Multiple spatial behaviours govern social network positions in a wild ungulate. Nature Ecology & Evolution; DOI: 10.1038/s41559-022-01817-9
    • Pung R, Firth JA et al. 2022. Using high-resolution contact networks to evaluate SARS-CoV-2 transmission and control in large-scale multi-day events. Nature Communications; DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-29522-y

    • Beck K & Firth JA. 2022. Animal Behaviour: Innovation in the city. Current Biology; DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2021.08.025
    • Jarić I, Roll U, Bonaiuto M, Brook B, Courchamp F, Firth JA et al. 2022. Societal extinction of species. Trends in Ecology & Evolution; DOI: 10.1016/j.tree.2021.12.011
    • Firth JA & Sheldon B. 2021. The long reach of family ties. Science; DOI: 10.1126/science.abj5234
    • Gokcekus S, Cole E, Sheldon B & Firth JA. 2021. Exploring the causes and consequences of cooperative behaviour in wild animal populations using a social network approach. Biological Reviews; DOI: 10.1111/brv.12757
    • Albery GF, Morris A, Morris S, Pemberton JM, Clutton-Brock TH, Nussey D & Firth JA. 2021. Multiple spatial behaviours govern social network positions in a wild ungulate. Ecology Letters; DOI: 10.1111.ele.01230
    • Firth JA. et al. 2020. Using a real-world network to model localized COVID-19 control strategies. Nature Medicine; DOI: 10.1038/s41591-020-1036-8
    • Firth JA. 2020. Considering Complexity: Animal Social Networks and Behavioural Contagions. Trends in Ecology and Evolution; DOI: 10.1016/j.tree.2019.10.009
    • Firth JA et al. 2020. Handgrip strength is associated with hippocampal volume and white matter hyperintensities in major depression and healthy controls: a U.K. Biobank study. Psychosomatic Medicine; DOI: 10.1097/PSY.0000000000000753
    • Ioannou C, Rocque F, Herbert-Read J, Duffield C, Firth JA. 2019. Predators attacking virtual prey reveal the costs and benefits of leadership. PNAS; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1816323116
    • Firth J, Torous, J, Stubbs, B, Firth JA et al. 2019. The “online brain”: how the Internet may be changing our cognition. World Psychiatry; DOI: 10.1002/wps.20617
    • Firth JA. et al. 2018. Personality shapes pair bonding in a wild bird social system. Nature Ecology & Evolution; DOI: 10.1038/s41559-018-0670-8
    • Firth J, Firth JA et al. 2018. Association Between Muscular Strength and Cognition in People With Major Depression or Bipolar Disorder and Healthy Controls. JAMA Psychiatry; DOI: 10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2018.0503
    • Firth JA. et al. 2017. Indirectly connected: simple social differences can explain the causes and apparent consequences of complex social network positions. Proceedings of the Royal Society B; DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2017.1939.
    • Bosse M, Spurgin LG, Laine VN, Cole EF, Firth JA. et al. 2017. Recent natural selection causes adaptive evolution of an avian polygenic trait. Science; DOI: 10.1126/science.aal3298
    • Firth JA. et al. 2017. Wild birds respond to flockmate loss by increasing their social network associations to others. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences;. DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2017.0299
    • Firth, JA. & Sheldon, BC. 2016. Social carry-over effects underpin trans-seasonally linked structure in a wild bird population. Ecology Letters; DOI: 10.1111/ele.12669
    • Firth, JA. et al. 2015. Experimental Evidence that Social Relationships Determine Individual Foraging Behavior. Current Biology; DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2015.09.075
    • Firth, JA. & Sheldon, BC. 2015. Experimental manipulation of avian social structure reveals segregation is carried over across contexts. Proceedings of the Royal Society B; DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2014.2350
    • Click here for full list of publications

    Recent Seminars & Other Activities:

    10 Invited Seminars (~60minute talk, and research visit - from 2016-Present) including: Imperial College London, Oxford University, Edinburgh University, Leeds University, Sheffield University, Cork University, Exeter University, Bristol University.

    8 International Conferences (~15-20minute talk – from 2013-Present) including: ISBE Minneapolis USA (2018), ISBE Exeter UK (2016), IEC Cairns AUS (2015), ISBE New York (2014).

     

    PhD Supervision: DPhil project supervision & DPhil Skills workshops (Oxford - 2019-Present)

    SPI-M Member: Reporting to SAGE and providing advice to the Department of Health and Social Care and wider UK government (2020-Present)

    Undergraduate Teaching: Lectures, project supervision, and tutorials (Oxford - 2015-Present)

    Governing Body Member: Merton College (Oxford - 2017-2020)

    Reviewer: Reviewed >80 Manuscripts for top journals, including Nature, Science, etc, & grants totalling >$3.3mil

    Guest Writer: The Conversation, Nature Blog, Academic Life Histories (2015-Present)

    Outreach activities: Primary School, A Levels & Public Lectures (2015-Present)

    Lead Organiser: Oxford BES Series (2020), OXBER Conservation Behaviour Meeting (Berlin - 2019 June), Royal Society Hooke Scientific Meeting (London - 2022 Apr)

    Project Leader: Modelling Collective Behaviour Workshop (Brooklyn, NYC - 2019 June)

    Editor: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society Series B (Guest Editor - 2022), eLife (Guest Editor), Avian Biology Research (2018-2019)

     

    Active Society Memberships: European Cooperation in Science and Technology (e-COST expert), International Society for Behavioural Ecology, Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour, International Society for Conservation Biology, Conservation Culturomics Working Group,

    Past Society Memberships: Evolution, American Society of Naturalists, Comparative Cognition Society

    Recent Grants & Awards:

    NERC Independent Research Fellowship (PI – 5yr) - Sep 2022   

    Roy. Soc. Rapid Assist. Modelling Pandemic ECI Award - Apr 2021

    Royal Society Hooke Scientific Meeting (PI) - Jul 2020

    OXBER Seed Grant (Co-I) - Aug 2019

    NERC Standard Grant (Co-I) - Apr 2019

    BBSRC Discovery Fellowship Award (PI) - Mar 2019

    Merton College Junior Research Fellowship (PI) - Oct 2017

    EGI Research Fellowship (PI) - May 2016

    MPLS Exceptional DPhil Acknowledgement - May 2016

  • Selected Recent Media Coverage:

  • Contact & CV

    Contact me about research opportunities, collaborations, and projects.

    Email

    josh.firth[at]biology.ox.ac.uk

    Twitter

    @JoshAFirth

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    Josh A Firth

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Josh A Firth © 2020

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