Kathy W. Nordeen

Kathy Nordeen PhD, University of California at Irvine, 1982
Professor, Brain & Cognitive Sciences and Neurobiology & Anatomy

Contact Information
Research Overview
Recent Publications
Research Collaborators
Research Support
Courses
Current Graduate Students & Research Associates

Contact Information

Meliora 106
Brain and Cognitive Sciences
University of Rochester
Rochester, NY 14627-0268
(585) 275-8452 (office)

Office Hours

By appointment.

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Research Overview

One of the most important functions of the nervous system is to store information and produce adaptive behaviors that reflect prior experience. To investigate the biological substrates of learning and memory, we have capitalized on the fact that many learned behaviors are permanently shaped by experiences that occur during so-called "sensitive" developmental periods. Language acquisition, imprinting and the development of normal sensory function all exhibit such sensitive periods, and these periods are probably limited by temporally-restricted neural events that are influenced by early experience.

To identify the cellular mechanisms underlying such period of special sensitivity to the environment, we are studying vocal learning in songbirds. Many birds are capable of developing normal song only during a restricted period early in life, and such learning is profoundly influenced by the birds' social, sensory and hormonal experiences during that time. Moreover, recent work indicates that some of the same neural pathways, transmitter systems, and biochemical cascades linked generally to reinforcement-based motor learning also are critical for avian song learning. Using behavioral, anatomical, pharmacological, biochemical, and molecular approaches, our aim is to determine how experience modifies the developing nervous system to store information and guide vocal development in songbirds. Currently, several studies are focused particularly on elucidating the role of basal ganglia pathways and dopaminergic neuromodulatory systems on the process by which young birds memorize the songs that will later serve as the target for vocal development.

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Recent Publications

Nordeen, K.W. and E.J. Nordeen (2008) Circuits and Cellular Mechanisms of Sensory Acquisition. In: The Neuroscience of Birdsong. P. Hzeigler and P. Marler (Eds), Cambridge University Press (In press).
Hein, A., A. Sridharan, K.W. Nordeen, and E.J. Nordeen (2007) Characterization of cell types expressing CaMKII within the avian basal ganglia. Brain Research, 1155: 125-133.
Scott, L., E.J. Nordeen, and K.W. Nordeen (2007) lMAN lesions prevent song degradation after deafening without reducing HVC neuron addition. Dev. Neurobiol, 67: 1407-18.
Singh, T.D., E.J. Nordeen, & K.W. Nordeen (2005). Song tutoring triggers CaMKII phosphorylation within a specialized portion of the avian basal ganglia. J Neurobiol, 65(2): 179-191.
Heinrich, J.E., K.W. Nordeen, & E.J. Nordeen (2005). Dissociation between extension of the sensitive period for avian vocal learning and the timing of dendritic spine loss in the lateral magnocellular nucleus of the anterior nidopallium. Neurobiol. Learning and Memory, 83: 143-150.
Scott, L., T.D. Singh, E.J. Nordeen, & K.W. Nordeen (2004). Developmental patterns of NMDAR expression within the song system do not recur during adult vocal plasticity in zebra finches. J. Neurobiol, 58, 442-54.
Nordeen, K.W. & E.J. Nordeen (2004). Synaptic and molecular mechanisms regulating plasticity during early learning. Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci., 1016, 416-437.
Heinrich, J.E., Singh, T.D., Nordeen, K.W., & Nordeen, E.J. (2003). NR2B downregulation in a forebrain region required for avian vocal learning is not sufficient to close the sensitive period for song learning. Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, 79, 99-108.
Singh, T.D., Heinrich, J.E., Wissman, A. Brenowitz, E.A., Nordeen, E.J. & K.W Nordeen (2003). Seasonal regulation of NMDA receptor NR2B mRNA in the adult canary song system. J. Neurobiol., 54, 593-603.
Heinrich, J.E., Singh, T.D., Sohrabji, F., Nordeen, K.W., & Nordeen, E.J. (2002). Developmental and hormonal regulation of NR2A mRNA in forebrain regions controlling avian vocal learning. Journal of Neurobiology, 51, 149-159.
Scott, L., Nordeen, E.J., & Nordeen, K.W. (2000). The relationship between rates of HVc neuron addition and vocal plasticity in adult songbirds. Journal of Neurobiology, 43, 79-88.
Singh, T.D., Basham, M.E., Nordeen, E.J., & Nordeen, K.W. (2000). Early sensory and hormonal experience modulate age-related changes in NR2B mRNA within a forebrain region controlling avian vocal learning. Journal of Neurobiology, 44, 82-94.
Basham, M.E., Sohrabji, F., Singh, T.D., Nordeen, E.J., & Nordeen, K.W. (1999). Developmental regulation of NMDA receptor 2b subunit mRNA and ifenprodil binding in the zebra finch anterior forebrain. Journal of Neurobiology, 39, 155-167.
Ward, B., Nordeen, K.W., & Nordeen, E.J. (1998). Individual variation in neuron number predicts differences in the propensity for avian vocal imitation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 95, 1277-1282.
Nordeen, K.W., & Nordeen, E.J. (1997). Anatomical and synaptic substrates for avian song learning. Journal of Neurobiology, 33, 532-548.
Aamodt, S.M., Nordeen, E.J., & Nordeen, K.W. (1996). Blockade of NMDA receptors during song model exposure impairs song development in juvenile Zebra finches. Learning and Memory, 65, 91-98.
Basham, M.E., Nordeen, E.J., & Nordeen, K.W. (1996). Blockade of NMDA receptors in the anterior forebrain impairs sensory acquisition in the Zebra finch. Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, 66, 295-304.
Aamodt, S.M., Nordeen, E.J., & Nordeen, K.W. (1995). Early isolation from conspecific song does not affect the normal developmental decline of NMDA receptor binding in an avian song nucleus. Journal of Neurobiology, 27, 76-84.
Nordeen, K.W., & Nordeen, E.J. (1992). Auditory feedback is necessary for the maintenance of stereotyped song in adult Zebra finches. Behavioral and Neural Biology, 57, 58-66.
Nordeen, E.J., & Nordeen, K.W. (1990). Neurogenesis and sensitive periods in avian vocal learning. Trends in Neurosciences, 13, 31-36.

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Research Collaborators

Eliot A. Brenowitz, Professor, Depts Psychology and Biology, U. Washington
David J. Perkel, Assoc. Professor, Depts Biology and Otolaryngology, U. Washington
Hermes H. Yeh, Professor, Dept Pharmacology & Physiology, U. Rochester
Steven A. Goldman, Professor, Dept Neurosurgery, U. Rochester
Timothy J. DeVoogd, Professor, Dept Psychology, Cornell University
Ernest J. Nordeen, Professor, Dept Brain & Cognitive Sciences, U. Rochester
Farida Sohrabji, Dept Human Anatomy & Medical Neurobiology, Texas A&M