CAREER: The integrative neurobiology of species recognition

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This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).Species recognition is the process by which an animal distinguishes between members of its own species, conspecifics, from other closely related species, heterospecifics. Although species recognition has been well studied from ecological and evolutionary perspectives, there has been little work on its mechanisms. The investigators will study species recognition from these diverse perspectives using a novel mammalian model, Alston's singing mouse. The research aims in this project are 1) To examine interactions between two closely related singing mice, testing how individual and population-level interactions between species shape the responses of mice to heterospecific songs. 2) To examine the neural circuitry underlying species recognition. The investigators will measure whether Foxp2, a gene implicated in human language, is expressed in the same neurons that are activated by conspecific song. In the final research aim (3), the investigators will manipulate Foxp2 expression in both sensory and auditory structures. This will enable the investigators to understand how (and if) Foxp2 contributes to sensory and motivational processing of mouse song in a way that might inform our understanding of human speech. Because the mice are remarkably charismatic, the investigators will use the resulting data in educational materials targeting diverse groups of students. In the context of undergraduate education the research findings in combination with several new technologies (personal response systems based on text-messaging, online learning modules, and peer-reviewed writing software) will be used to develop innovative new course content. And lastly, the research data will be incorporated into a series of learning modules we are developing for use in Science Partners in Inquiry-based Collaborative Education, an outreach program that targets underperforming middle schools with high minority enrollments. Together this project promises to further our understanding of social behavior while streamlining the incorporation of new findings into the education of the general public.