Sarah Woolley: Singing in the Brain

The young brain learning to communicate with hearing and voice builds auditory and vocal motor circuits that are functionally coupled to perceive and produce particular sounds. Sarah Woolley has helped decode how the brain interprets vocalizations — and what happens during development when those sounds are disrupted. Her research could shed important light on developmental disorders associated with speech and communication. In this conversation, Dr. Woolley will discuss progress using songbirds to understand how early social experience tunes the auditory system for vocal communication.

Event Speaker:

Sarah Woolley, PhD is Professor and former Chair in the Department of Psychology at Columbia University. She directs the Communication Neuroscience Laboratory in the Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute and is a member of the Kavli Institute for Brain Science.