Undergraduate Institution and Major/Degree:
Major Advisor(s):
Research Description:
Zebra finches, and other songbirds, are an ideal model system to better understand vocalization. Birdsong and human speech share several characteristics, including a developmental critical period and specialized brain areas devoted to vocalization. In the Nick Lab, I use longitudinal multi-unit recordings to study how activity in a cortical song nucleus, HVC, is developmentally regulated. To further explore how HVC contributes to song learning, I record multiple single units simultaneously using 4-tetrode technology. Recording with these arrays provides valuable insights about differences (or similarities) in the circuitry within HVC at different developmental stages of song learning.
Courses Taken Beyond the Core Courses:
- Psychology of Hearing
- Biostatistics
- Advanced Developmental Biology
- Biochemistry
- Introduction to Matlab for Biomedical Engineers
- Preparing Future Faculty
- Neural Systems and Behavior, Woods Hole, MA - Summer 2009
Lab Rotations:
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Teresa Nick
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Jonathan Gewirtz
-
Scott Selleck
Committee Members:
- Glenn Giesler - Chair
- Mark Bee
- Mark Masino
- Teresa Nick - Advisor
Selected Publications:
- Day NF, Kinnischtzke AK, Adam M, Nick TA. Top-down regulation of plasticity in the birdsong system: "Premotor" activity in the nucleus HVC predicts song variability better than it predicts song features. J Neurophysiol. 2008 Sep 10.
Conferences Attended:
- Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting - Fall 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008
- Birdsong Workshop - Summer 2007, 2008
- International Congress for Neuroethology - Summer 2007
Professional Memberships:
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