Hormonal Influences on the Development of the Nervous System
Ernest Nordeen
Gonadal hormones powerfully influence the development and modifiability of neural circuits controlling learned behavior. My lab is interested in identifying cellular processes and molecules that mediate these effects of hormones, and in understanding better how hormones impact behavioral development. My work focuses on the neural system controlling the learning and production of male courtship song in birds. Gonadal hormones affect song development by controlling the pace of vocal development and thereby regulating sensitive periods for vocal learning. My lab investigates how hormones influence the developmental regulation of molecules fostering synaptic plasticity and learning (e.g. NMDA receptors and/or neurotrophins). My goals are twofold: to use gonadal hormones as tools to manipulate and understand basic cellular processes that orchestrate neural development, and to elucidate how hormones influence the complex cognitive processes underlying perception, learning and memory.