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.
Publications
- Kumah, EA, Mgawadere, F, Ladur, A, Suleiman, Z, Sanyang, Y, White, SA et al.. Protocol: Effectiveness of Sexual and Reproductive Health Blended Learning Approaches for Capacity Strengthening of Health Professionals in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: A Systematic Review. Campbell Syst Rev. 2025;21 (1):e70028. doi: 10.1002/cl2.70028. PubMed PMID:40071104 PubMed Central PMC11894264.
- Ladur, AN, Egere, U, Ravit, M, Mgawadere, F, Murray, C, White, SA et al.. A blended learning approach for capacity strengthening to improve the quality of integrated HIV, TB, and malaria services during antenatal and postnatal care in LMICs: a feasibility study. BMC Med Educ. 2025;25 (1):35. doi: 10.1186/s12909-024-06633-2. PubMed PMID:39780210 PubMed Central PMC11715178.
- Dekle, JL, Strosnider, WHJ, White, SA. Phosphorus removal from irrigation return flow using an iron oxide filter and denitrifying pine bark bioreactor treatment train. Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2024;31 (58):66435-66444. doi: 10.1007/s11356-024-35641-4. PubMed PMID:39627499 PubMed Central PMC11659336.
- Malik, AK, Tingle, SJ, Chung, N, Owen, R, Mahendran, B, Counter, C et al.. Erratum to The impact of time to death in donors after circulatory death on recipient outcome in simultaneous pancreas-kidney transplantation [American Journal of Transplantation 24 (2024) 1247-1256]. Am J Transplant. 2025;25 (2):449-450. doi: 10.1016/j.ajt.2024.10.017. PubMed PMID:39550254 .
- White, SA, Mgawadere, F, Gopalakrishnan, S, van den Broek, N. Standards-based audit to improve quality of maternal and newborn care-A stepped-wedge cluster randomised trial in Malawi. PLoS One. 2024;19 (9):e0310896. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0310896. PubMed PMID:39348372 PubMed Central PMC11441693.