Catherine Marler

Catherine Marler
Professor
Ph.D. 1990, Arizona

My research centers around bi-directional interactions between endocrinology , animal behavior and the social environment. We are currently investigating how the social environment during development can influence neuroendocrinology and behaviors such as aggressive and parental behaviors, how aggressive experiences as an adult can influence hormones and aggressive behavior in the future in both males and females, and how hormones influence aggression and paternal behavior. We employ a wide range of model systems that permit study of both the mechanisms controlling behavior and the evolution of social behaviors, although a primary focus is Peromyscus mice because species display variation in aggressive and paternal behaviors.

REPRESENTATIVE PUBLICATIONS

Davis, E. & Marler , C.A. (2004). c-fos changes following an aggressive encounter in female California mice: a synthesis of behavior, hormone changes and neural activity. Neuroscience, 127, 611-24.

Bester-Meredith, J.K., Martin, P. & Marler , C.A. Manipulations of vasopressin alter aggression differently across testing conditions in monogamous and non-monogamous Peromyscus mice. Aggressive Behavior, in press.

Trainor, B. C., Marler, C. A., & Bird, I. M. (2004). Opposing hormonal mechanisms of aggression revealed through short-lived testosterone manipulations and multiple winning experiences. Hormones and Behavior, 45, 115-121.

Marler, C.A. , Bester-Meredith, J. & Trainor, B.C. (2003). Paternal Behavior and Aggression: Endocrine Mechanisms and Nongenomic Transmission of Behavior. In Advances in the Study of Behavior (ed. P.J.B. Slater, J.S. Rosenblatt, Snowdon , C.T. & Roper, T.J. New York : Academic Press.

Trainor, B.C., Rouse, K.L. & Marler , C.A. (2003). Arginine vasotocin interacts with the social environment to regulate advertisement calling in the gray treefrog (Hyla versicolor). Brain, Behavior and Evolution, 61, 165-171.