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What we study: 

The genetic basis of behavior, and cognition particularly remains poorly understood. It was long hypothesized that variation in cognitive abilities in natural populations is mostly shaped by learning and individual experience. On the other hand, phenotypic traits such as spatial cognition in mountain chickadees are likely under strong natural selection and hence should have a heritable (genetic) basis. With a support of recently awarded NSF grant ) and in collaboration with the Pravosudov lab, we will gather information about cognitive phenotype and will sequence whole genomes of many hundreds of chickadees. To account for environmental differences across the mountain chickadee geographic range, we will run “smart feeder” stations at  in California and the Mountain Research Station in Colorado. Ultimately, we aim to understand to the extent to which variation in spatial cognition in chickadees is genetically determined and what specific genetic loci and genes contribute to this variation.