Postdoctoral Research

My postdoctoral research with Aras Petrulis and Geert de Vries tests the modulatory role of the vasopressin system on sexually differentiated social behavior in mice. My research tests the effect of social experience on V1aR distribution across brain regions involved in social behavior in male and female mice. Currently, I’m working on a project that compares male and female laboratory-reared and wild-derived mice (see above!) to test the effects of sex and evolutionary history on aggression across multiple brain regions regulating social behavior.

PhD Research

My PhD research with Hans Hofmann explored the effect of the social environment on individual variation and social interactions in the African cichlid fish, Astatotilapia burtoni. I developed a naturalistic experimental design that provided novel insights into the neural and hormonal mechanisms associated with dynamic behavioral interactions and space use patterns within social groups. In one set of experiments, I changed the social context by adding an intruding male to a group of cichlids and demonstrated that multivariate analyses (neuroendocrine patterns, gene expression, behavior) reveal meaningful insights into both individual and group level responses. Currently, I’m finalizing an article that combines behavioral data (space use, aggression, reproduction) with measures of sex and stress hormones, as well as transcriptome data from key brain regions involved in social behavior to identify unique styles of dominant, territorial males and determine their effect on the social community.

I also worked with Molly Cummings to explore how physiological manipulations alter social and reproductive interactions in two species of Poeciliid fish (sailfin mollies and mosquitofish). Specifically, I manipulated estrogen levels in females from the two species and examined the effects on opsin expression. I found that while the two species inhabit the same freshwater environments, they exhibit different sensitivity (in opsin expression) to estrogen manipulation. I was also able to help out with hormone analyses for a cool project on poison dart frogs.

MSc Research

My MSc research at McGill with Lauren Chapman and Nadia Aubin-Horth explored the impact of the physical environment on the physiology and behavior of the African cichlid fish, Pseudocrenilabrus multicolor victoriae. Specifically, I validated a technique to measure sex hormones in our species of cichlid, and then examined the effect of low dissolved oxygen on measures of reproduction in cichlids in the laboratory and the field. I found that low oxygen could disrupt the ratio of sex hormones and modify male reproductive displays.