Research in our lab is focused on the study of behavioral consequences of injury or disruption of typical developmental processes in the young brain. To address this topic, we employ various rodent models of developmental brain injury/disruption and other genetic disorders, and then follow subjects as they develop by studying their behavioral and cognitive abilities.
Behavioral measures include assessments of rapid auditory processing; this testing can begin in rodents as young as 30 days of age. Auditory processing assessments are used based on strong evidence that early processing of rapidly changing auditory information is correlated with, and predictive of, language development in humans. Additional behavioral tests include assessments of spatial navigation (e.g., Morris Water Maze), working memory (e.g., radial arm maze), non-spatial learning and memory (e.g., T-maze, operant conditioning and learning), motor earning (e.g., rotarod), exploration and locomotion (open-field), anxiety (Plus-maze), aggression (test-tube task), and social behaviors (e.g., 3-chamber social task, vocalizations).
