Neurobiology and Development
of Social Behavior

The Hiura lab investigates the ways in which our environments and biology interact to produce variation in social behavior over the lifespan. We study the socially monogamous prairie vole because they, like humans, are one of the rare mammalian species that form enduring pair bonds with their mating partners. We leverage molecular genetic, optical, and pharmacological techniques to understand what is special about how monogamous brains change over the lifespan to enable this unique social behavior.