Human Nature Lab talk: “Environmental & Physiological Correlates of Parental Behavior”

Speaker: Juan Perea-Rodriguez
Yale University

Talk summary: “The talk will describe the work I have been doing for the past 13 years in an effort to understand the ultimate and proximate mechanisms that can influence cooperative breeding and activity patterns in mammals. This work investigates how fathers from monogamous (i.e., reproducing adults develop a social bond/preference) and biparental (i.e., both parents care for their young) primates and rodents respond to offspring-related stimuli. In addition, I will present the results of a study that seeks to understand how thermal challenges may determine how wild monkeys (and other endotherms) may structure their daily activities.”

Speaker bio:   “My main research interest is in identifying the ultimate and proximate mechanisms that structure cooperative breeding and the circadian rhythms of mammals, especially for those species where males invest heavily on the direct care of their young. I am intrigued by how an individual’s biotic and abiotic environment, including its social environment, may have the potential to modify certain (neuro)physiological systems that influence how individuals interact with their social and abiotic environments. My research thus far has focused, in one hand, on identifying the possible role peripheral and central endocrine changes may have in promoting and maintaining interactions between monogamous (i.e., pair-bonded) adults, parent-offspring bonding, and paternal care; and in another, I have focused on understanding how certain ecological factors may structure general patterns of behavior (i.e., activity patterns) by modifying metabolic energy expenditure. For this work, I have used two of the three extant species of genetically and socially monogamous and biparental mammals (i.e., the California mouse [Peromyscus californicus], the owl monkey [Aotus spp.]) as models to develop research questions relating to the role certain physiological responses to the environment may promote paternal presence and investment/care and changes in temporal niche.”

Lunch from Cafe George

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