UCLA Neuroscience Program Ph.D. Admissions Neuroscience Faculty UCLA and Beyond  



Stephanie White
Social Influences on Learning and Memory

Email Address:  sawhite@ucla.edu
Home Page: http://www.physci.ucla.edu/research/white

Work Address:
Life Sciences Bldg.
Life Sciences Bldg.
Phone Numbers:
(310) 267-4017 Laboratory
(310) 794-1888 Office

Selected Publications:

Teramitsu I & White SA FoxP2 regulation during undirected singing in adult songbirds. Journal of Neuroscience. 2006; 26: 7390-7394.
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The Avian Brain Nomenclature Consortium Avian brains and a paradigm shift in understanding vertebrate brain evolution. Nature Reviews Neuroscience 2005; 6: 151-159.
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Nilson, PC Teramitsu, I White, SA Caudal thoracic air sac cannulation in zebra finches for isoflurane anesthesia. Journal of Neuroscience Methods. 2005; 143: 107-15.
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Teramitsu, I Kudo, LC London, SE Geschwind, DH White, SA Parallel FoxP1 and FoxP2 expression in songbird and human brain predicts functional interaction. The Journal of Neuroscience. 2004; 24(13): 3152-63.
Reiner A, Perkel D, Bruce L, Butler A, Csillag A, Kuenzel W, Medina L, Paxinos G, Powers A, Shimisu T, Striedter G, Wild M, Ball G, Durand S, Gunturkun O, Lee D, Mello C, White SA, Hough T, Kubikova L, Smulders T, Wada K, Dugas-Ford J, Husband S, Yamamoto K, Yu J, Siang C, Jarvis ED Revised nomenclature for avian telencephalon and some related brain nuclei. Journal of Comparative Neurology. 2004; 473: 377-414.
Scharff, C White, SA Genetic components of vocal learning. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. 2004; 1016: 325-47.
White, SA Nguyen, T Fernald, RD Social regulation of gonadotropin-releasing hormone. The Journal of Experimental Biology. 2002; 205: 2567-81.
White SA Learning to communicate. Current Opinion in Neurobiology. 2001; 11: 510-520.
Livingston*FL, White*SA, & Mooney R Slow NMDA-PSCs at synapses critical for song development are not required for song learning in zebra finches. Nature Neuroscience. 2000; 3: 482-488.
White, SA Livingston, FS Mooney, R Androgens modulate NMDA receptor-mediated EPSCs in the zebra finch song system. Journal of Neurophysiology. 1999; 82(5): 2221-34.
White SA & Mooney R Can an old bird change his tune?. Current Biology. 1999; 9: R688-690.
Fernald RD & White SA Social control of brains: from behavior to genes. The Cognitive Neurosciences 1999; 2nd edition: 1193-1208.
Spiro, JE White, SA Neuroethology: a meeting of brain and behavior. Neuron. 1998; 21(5): 981-9.
White, SA Fernald, RD Changing through doing: behavioral influences on the brain. Recent progress in hormone research. 1997; 52: 455-73; discussion 473-4.
Fox* HE, White* SA, Kau MHF & Fernald RD Stress and dominance in a social fish. Journal of Neuroscience. 1997; 17: 6463-6469.
White, SA Kasten, TL Bond, CT Adelman, JP Fernald, RD Three gonadotropin-releasing hormone genes in one organism suggest novel roles for an ancient peptide. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 1995; 92(18): 8363-7.
White SA & Fernald RD Gonadotropin-releasing hormone-containing neurons change size with reproductive state in female Haplochromis burtoni. Journal of Neuroscience 1993; 13: 434-441.
Research Interest:

How do social interactions influence the brain? Our laboratory is interested in how social behaviors affect neuronal plasticity at sites responsible for learning in an Australian songbird, the zebra finch. Song learning is essential for reproductive opportunity and is mediated by known neural circuitry. In zebra finches, both the learned behavior and its underlying neural structures are sexually dimorphic, and plasticity is greatest during critical developmental phases. Within a comparative framework, we use behavioral, electrophysiological, and molecular techniques to investigate how social interactions shape gene expression patterns, how these changes modulate neuronal and circuit properties and ultimately, how this constellation of changes sculpts behavior.