Major interests

How do individuals perceive and integrate the multitude of signals in their environment to appropriately time reproduction? How does the perception of particularly relevant environmental information reverberate throughout the organism as physiological signals and behavior? My main research interest is to understand how organisms interpret information in their environment, and how this environmental information is integrated and translated by the brain into hormonal signals regulating reproductive behavior and the timing of reproduction. For any environmental signal to influence the reproductive axis, it must interact with the gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) system. This system acts, by way of gonadotropins, to activate the reproductive organs, sex steroid hormones and ultimately behavior. My research attempts to understand how this system is stimulated or inhibited by relevant environmental cues.

Recent/Present Research

As a post-doc with Michaela Hau at Princeton University, I made use of a species (the zebra finch, Taeniopygia guttata) that breeds in an extremely unpredictable environment (the Australian desert) and only uses immediate environmental information in order to time when to breed (i.e., during drought, groups of birds search until they find an area with food and water). These small songbirds represent an extreme in flexibility of reproductive timing, called opportunistic breeders, and are an excellent model system in which to study endocrine and neuroendocrine mechanisms that mediate rapid behavioral and physiological switches between breeding and non-breeding. One long standing hypothesis has been that opportunistic breeders should maintain a reproductive axis (which includes hypothalamic brain areas, pituitary gland secretion of gonadotropins and gonadal state) that is activated year-round. I tested this assumption directly in both the laboratory (by manipulating relevant environmental cues such as food and water, and measuring effects on the reproductive axis) and in the field (by measuring reproductive activation in arid central Australia where rainfall and breeding periodicity are extremely unpredictable, and in southern temperate Australia where climatic conditions and breeding are much more seasonal).

My work in the Bentley lab will test specifically for tonic activation in the brain of zebra finches by measuring the effect of environmental conditions on relevant brain peptides (specifically GnRH and gonadotropin inhibitory hormone, GnIH). Additionally, I look forward to joining the lab in illuminating the basic mechanisms of GnIH in the vertebrate brain.

Nicole Perfito, Ph.D. *Postdoctoral Fellow* Department of Integrative Biology University of California, Berkeley
Contact: nperfito@berkeley.edu
C.V.
Research Interests:
Major interests How do individuals perceive and integrate the multitude of signals in their environment to appropriately time reproduction? How does the perception of particularly relevant environmental information reverberate throughout the organism as physiological signals and behavior? My main research interest is to understand how organisms interpret information in their environment, and how this environmental information is integrated and translated by the brain into hormonal signals regulating reproductive behavior and the timing of reproduction. For any environmental signal to influence the reproductive axis, it must interact with the gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) system. This system acts, by way of gonadotropins, to activate the reproductive organs, sex steroid hormones and ultimately behavior. My research attempts to understand how this system is stimulated or inhibited by relevant environmental cues. Recent/Present Research As a post-doc with Michaela Hau at Princeton University, I made use of a species (the zebra finch, Taeniopygia guttata) that breeds in an extremely unpredictable environment (the Australian desert) and only uses immediate environmental information in order to time when to breed (i.e., during drought, groups of birds search until they find an area with food and water). These small songbirds represent an extreme in flexibility of reproductive timing, called opportunistic breeders, and are an excellent model system in which to study endocrine and neuroendocrine mechanisms that mediate rapid behavioral and physiological switches between breeding and non-breeding. One long standing hypothesis has been that opportunistic breeders should maintain a reproductive axis (which includes hypothalamic brain areas, pituitary gland secretion of gonadotropins and gonadal state) that is activated year-round. I tested this assumption directly in both the laboratory (by manipulating relevant environmental cues such as food and water, and measuring effects on the reproductive axis) and in the field (by measuring reproductive activation in arid central Australia where rainfall and breeding periodicity are extremely unpredictable, and in southern temperate Australia where climatic conditions and breeding are much more seasonal). My work in the Bentley lab will test specifically for tonic activation in the brain of zebra finches by measuring the effect of environmental conditions on relevant brain peptides (specifically GnRH and gonadotropin inhibitory hormone, GnIH). Additionally, I look forward to joining the lab in illuminating the basic mechanisms of GnIH in the vertebrate brain.