Lessons on Family Relationships From Poison Frogs

In this Presidential Lecture, Lauren O’Connell will describe her group’s research on the neural basis of social bonds in family relationships, including parental coordination of offspring care and parent-infant affiliation. Her group uses poison frogs, which have complex family units and simple brains, to uncover the neural mechanisms reinforcing familial interactions. She will also present the latest data on how variation in care quality during development shapes brain structure and function in offspring.