Sarah London is interested in how the brain develops, especially how early experience can alter neural function and behavior. She uses the zebra finch songbird as her model system because males can learn their song during only one period in development (females cannot sing). She applies molecular...
Sarah London is interested in how the brain develops, especially how early experience can alter neural function and behavior. She uses the zebra finch songbird as her model system because males can learn their song during only one period in development (females cannot sing). She applies molecular and genomic tools in combination with behavioral manipulations to uncover neural processes that promote and limit the ability of young zebra finches to acquire song. This strategy allows one to discover mechanisms that may also be involved in human speech acquisition and other developmentally learned behaviors.