Research interests: The research goals of my program are focused on understanding the physiological mechanisms underlying synaptic plasticity of neurons, especially motor neurons which make synapses on muscle fibers. My research program is a multifaceted approach to the study of specific neuromodulatory molecules whose actions are relevant to the whole animal. At a social level, animals show distinct differences in behavior and in responses to sensory cues. For example, among human siblings there may be dominant, outgoing individuals, as well as shy and introverted ones. The focus of much research in this broad area has been on the central nervous system and has recently expanded into studies of the expression of particular genes in the nervous system, in a variety of animal species. The hope is to be able to get a handle on the mechanisms of how neurons are activated or turned off and how they communication with each other are be modulated to elicit particular responses. Various factors such as hunger, visual cues, parasitism and pheromones are currently being addressed in relation to social status among crayfish in my laboratory. I am also addressing learned verus innate behaviors among visual, visually impaired and cave-adapted blind crayfish in establishing combats and posturing positions. This will bring the works full circle to genetic variations over evolutionary time scales among species and the effects of neuromodulators on neural circuits which have evolved to carry out given behaviors. The pilot investigations have opened new horizons to be tackled in the terms of neuromodulators actions on neuronal function that results in altered behaviors as well as abnormal development of the nervous system.

My graduate student (Sonya M. Bierbower) and I are examining the environmental effects on behavior and physiology in the crayfish species Procambarus clarkii and Orconectes australis packardi. The fear, flight or fight response serves as the fundamental physiological basis for examining an organism’s awareness of its environment under an impending predator attack. By using a specific set of criteria, we can examine physiological stressors internally and externally to the organisms.