Dr. Erin Hecht

My lab’s research asks how brains change in response to selection pressure on behavior, and how brains acquire heritable adaptations for complex, learned behaviors.  Comparisons between modern humans and our living primate relatives provide a way to address this question in the context of our own evolutionary history.  In addition, we can learn about general mechanisms of brain-behavior evolution by studying “unnatural selection” in intentionally-bred animals.  Current areas of focus include neural and behavioral variation in domestic dog breeds and domesticated foxes, the neural bases of communication, tool use, and social behavior in humans and our primate relatives, and brain mechanisms for learning and flexible behavior across mammals.  The lab’s methods include structural and functional neuroimaging in living humans and dogs, and fixed brains of various species; histology; and behavior measurements.