Why Do Birds Sing?

Name: Why Do Birds Sing?
Start: 2025-05-01T12:30:00-05:00
End: 2025-05-01T13:30:00-05:00
Location: 1800 College Dr, Rice Lake, WI, United States, Wisconsin 54868

Schedule

Thu May 01 2025 at 12:30 pm to 01:30 pm

UTC-05:00

Location

1800 College Dr, Rice Lake, WI, United States, Wisconsin 54868 | Rice Lake, WI

Scientists have known how birds sing for decades but why they sing is still a puzzle. Please join us to learn more from Dr. Lauren Riters about birds and their songs.
The focus of research in Dr. Riters lab is on the neural regulation of vocal communication in songbirds. She and her lab members are interested in 1) how the brain ensures that communication takes place within an appropriate context in response to appropriate social stimuli, 2) how the brain regulates motivation or reward associated with communication, and 3) how the brain regulates selective behavioral responses to communication signals. They are particularly interested in how the brain’s natural motivation and reward systems (the same systems implicated in feeding, sexual behavior, and drug abuse in humans) also participate in the production of vocal communication and responses to vocal signals.
Dr. Riters research integrates semi-natural behavioral observations of aviary housed birds with neuroscience laboratory techniques. Scientific methods include quantitative real-time PCR, gene silencing (siRNA), immunocytochemistry, site-directed and systemic pharmacological manipulations, neuroanatomical tract tracing, and hormone assays. Most studies use European starlings but studies from the lab also include zebra finches, black-capped chickadees, house sparrows, and northern loons (in collaboration with Dr. Walter Piper).