Infant Primate Neurobehavioral Development
My Master's and Dissertation research center around my passion for infant monkey behavior and development, which was sparked the first moment I set foot in the Infant Primate Research Laboratory as a sophomore at the University of Washington in 1999. My mentor and dear friend, Gerry Ruppenthal (1944-2005) guided my foray into primatology, and it is to his lasting memory, doctrine, and love for infant monkeys that I dedicate my research. In my career, I hope to pass on some of the vast knowledge (and love of fine liquors) that he instilled in me.
My Dissertation research examines the extent to which early life experience and serotonin-transporter genotype (essentially, a nature/nurture interaction) influence long-term stress phsyiology, and how this system may then predict the development of social anxiety in juvenile monkeys. This research has direct relevance to human populations as social anxiety is the one of the most common type of anxiety disorders and the onset usually begins in childhood or adolescence (NIMH, 2007). I am studying two cohorts of infant rhesus monkeys from birth through two years of age, and I aim to complete my PhD in May of 2009.
My Master's work, which I completed in February 2007, examined the effects of two types of inanimate surrogate mothers on the neurobehavioral development of infant rhesus monkeys. This was the first surrogate study to directly compare surrogate-reared infants to infants reared with their mothers, and my study (recently published in Developmental Psychobiology) found that infants reared on a swinging, vertically-oriented surrogate develop motor skills and exploratory behaviors more similar to those of mother-reared infants than do monkeys reared on a standard rocking, horizontally-oriented surrogate found in several primate nurseries.
