Research Interests
I am interested in how adaptive behaviors are shaped by
experience. It is well established that learning is regulated by
hormones, gene expression profiles and brain plasticity. Thus, to understand
how past experiences affect behavior we need to elucidate how these different
levels interact to give a final output. Chickens are advantageous to explore
the neural basis of learning and memory. Immediately after hatching, chicks are
incredibly independent and can become imprinted to auditory stimuli. The main goal
of my PhD project is understand the role of forebrain auditory regions in
imprinting by means of in vivo physiology and pharmacology.
Publications
1. Perrone, R., Batista, G., Lorenzo, D., Macadar, O. & Silva, A. Vasotocin actions on electric behavior: interspecific, seasonal, and social context-dependent differences. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience 4, (2010). Pubmed
2. Batista, G., Zubizarreta, L., Perrone, R. & Silva, A. Non-sex-biased Dominance in a Sexually Monomorphic Electric Fish: Fight Structure and Submissive Electric Signalling. Ethology 118, 398-410 (2012). Link
3. Silva AC, Perrone R, Zubizarreta L, Batista G, Stoddard PK. Neuromodulation of the agonistic behavior in two species of weakly electric fish that display different types of aggression. J Exp Biol. 2013 Jul 1;216(Pt 13):2412-20. Pubmed