Brief description of research

Evolution and neuroecology of spatial memory, behavioral endocrinology, energy management and starvation-predation trade-off.

 My overall research objective has been to study how natural selection is shaping animals' adaptations to highly variable and unpredictable environments and my current research is focused on cognitive adaptations. Animal cognition appears to be an evolutionary trait that has been shaped by natural selection along with behavioral, morphological, and physiological traits and thus it is important to study cognitive processes within the evolutionary framework. In my research on cognitive ecology, I combine behavioral ecology with experimental psychology, physiology and neurobiology within evolutionary framework to better understand both ultimate questions about cognitive function and proximate questions about the underlying mechanisms of cognitive traits. Proximate mechanisms can often mediate correlated suites of behaviors not all of which are necessarily beneficial and they can also serve as a constraint for particular behavioral traits. Thus, studying mechanisms underlying behavioral traits can provide a more complete understanding of the full range of costs and benefits associated with those traits.

      My current research has been particularly focused on neuroecology and evolution of spatial memory. In order to understand memory and how it can affect fitness we need to understand the interactions between environment, memory and its underlying mechanisms. For most of my research, I use food-caching birds as a model. Food-caching birds represent an extremely tractable system for several reasons. They have remarkably accurate memories for the locations of hidden caches and these memories are dependent on the hippocampus. The cache-recovery behavior of these birds capitalizes on the ecological and evolutionary validity of a natural memory-based behavior that can be productively studied in both field and laboratory settings; it can be easily manipulated and studied in captive birds and is therefore amenable to the benefits of rigorous laboratory control. Overall, food-caching birds represent an excellent model for studying how ecological and environmental pressures might have shaped the evolution of brain and memory.

My laboratory is equipped for conducting behavioral tests and for the brain and hormone analyses.

My recent research addressed the following questions:

(1) Evolution of spatial memory and the hippocampus in food-caching birds

(2) Relationship between migratory behavior, memory and the hippocampus

(3) Effects of nutritional deficits during posthatching development on adrenocortical function, memory and the brain

(4) Effects of the environment on adrenocortical function, food-caching behavior, spatial memory and the hippocampus

(5) Effects of hormones on food-caching behavior, memory and the hippocampus

Currently, my laboratory is working on three projects:

(1) The relationship between reliance on food caching, spatial memory and the hippocampus - an intraspecific comparison (supported by NSF)

(2) Effect of social environment on memory, hippocampal structure and neurogenesis (supported by NIH R01)

(3) Hippocampal neurogenesis and memory (supported by NIH R21)

Collaborators:

Dr. Anders Brodin; Department of Theoretical Ecology; University of Lund, Sweden.

I collaborate with Anders Brodin on my research on evolution of spatial memory and the hippocampus in food-caching birds,

and, in particular, on comparing hippocampal and brain size between Eurasian and North American species.