Neurogenetics of Vocal Communication

Monday 12 December 2022

Research Centre:

Group Highlights

Our research group focuses on the study of vocal communication in mammals as a way to understand the biological basis of human speech and language and how this trait evolved.

Many species of mammal, including our primate cousins, have limited vocal repertoires. But a few mammals such as bats, whales and elephants use complex and varied vocalisations that share some characteristics with human speech, for example, the ability to learn vocalisations from other members of their social group.

Currently very little is known about the genetic basis for these sophisticated vocal behaviours in non-human mammals. Studying such species could provide clues about how human language evolved, and how language abilities are encoded in the brain and the genome.

Research

As part of our quest to understand the neurogenetic bases of vocal learning and social-vocal communication, we devote particular attention to the study of vocal learning and communication behaviour in bats. We use cutting-edge molecular techniques to identify genes and neural circuits that are important for vocal communication and learned vocalisations in this species. We also investigate the causes of language disorders in clinical populations to gain insight into the causes of these disorders, but also to understand the genetic factors underlying normal language development. Candidate genes identified in clinical populations are also explored in our animal models to understand what role they play and why their disruption leads to language-related disorders.

Group Members

Sonja Vernes
Aleksandra Wcislo
Kirsty Hamilton
Sasha Newar
Ine Alvarez van Tussenbroek
Benjamin Thompson
Sixue Lee
Nikita Groot
Alexa Clarke
Alice Crighton
Mike Cummings
Meike Mai

Publications

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Contact

[email protected]

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