How does experience change the structure of the brain? Are the functions of the brain mediated by changes in structural plasticity? Can rewarding experiences protect the aging brain? My laboratory aims to answer these and other related questions by investigating structural plasticity in the adult and aging brain, its alteration by experiences and hormones, with a view toward understanding their functional relevance.
To do so, my research focuses on the interactions among rewarding experiences, hippocampal structural plasticity, and hippocampal function. My specific research interests include:
(1) examining the interactions among age, rewarding experiences, and hippocampal structural plasticity and function
(2) examining how paternal experience alters hippocampal structural plasticity and function in a biparental mouse species, Peromyscus californicus.
My laboratory focuses on adult neurogenesis; dendritic spine alterations; social, cognitive, and emotional behaviors, relying on many research tools from behavioral neuroscience, neuroendocrinology, and molecular and cellular biology.