Research
How social interactions influence the brain
Appointments
- Professor, Integrative Biology and Physiology
- Tennenbaum Center for the Biology of Creativity
- Member, ACCESS Program: Dept. of Molecular, Cell & Integrative Physiology
- Neuroscience IDP
- Brain Research Institute
- Faculty, Molecular, Cellular, and Integrative Physiology IDP
Biography
Autism can be clinically diagnosed by two deficits: an inability to participate in joint attention, and poor language development with abnormal social use. The goal of the White laboratory is to understand the mechanisms of this disorder and to develop treatments to compensate for these deficits.
Vocal-learning in songbirds shares key aspects with human speech. In both songbirds and humans:
- Vocal-learning happens during a critical developmental window
- It occurs within discrete regions of the brain that are dedicated to the development and production of learned vocalizations
- Social influences have a significant impact on vocal-learning.
The White laboratory uses songbirds for their unparalleled potential to reveal the basic neural mechanisms that underlie vocal learning. Manipulation of the pupil-tutor relationship is used to determine how social interactions impact learning. In addition, we use genetic interference strategies to functionally test the effects of over- or under-expression of molecules involved in learning in mammals, for their role in vocal learning under different rearing conditions.