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Friday Evening Lecture Series
 07/17/03 (Forbes Lecture)
Brain to Brain: A Neurobiology of Vocal Communication
Darcy B. Kelley, Professor, Department of Biological Sciences, Columbia University
Introduction by Janis C. Weeks, Ph.D., Professor of Biology, University of Oregon
Lecture Abstract:
How does one brain communicate with another? This question lies at the heart of the neurobiology of social communication and we have addressed it through the complex vocal communication system of the South African clawed frog, Xenopus laevis. Males produce six song types. Three - used in the presence of other males—contribute to a system of vocal dominance in which only one male, out of thousands, calls. Female calls are given only to males; one is an acoustic aphrodisiac, while the other is an anti-aphrodisiac. Each call is distinct and characterized by rate, intensity modulation, and temporal pattern. We are examining how sex-specific songs are created within the central nervous system and how songs are perceived. The female calls, for example, differ only in click rate. Where in the brain is this quality abstracted? How does a fast rate excite the vocal pathway and a slow rate suppress call activity?
07/18/03 (Forbes Lecture)
Generating Male and Female Brains: A Molecular Alphabet for Sexual Differentiation
Darcy B. Kelley, Professor, Department of Biological Sciences, Columbia University
Introduction by Bernice Grafstein, Ph.D., Vincent and Brooke Astor Distinguished Professor of Neuroscience, Department of Physiology & Biophysics, Weill Medical College of Cornell University
Lecture Abstract:
We know that, in most animals, the behaviors exhibited by the sexes differ in kind. Behavior is the output of the central nervous system and we would like to determine how sex differences in the brain contribute to male- and female-specification actions. To answer this question we have used a powerful animal model system: the male- and female-specific songs of the South African clawed frog. This creature, Xenopus laevisis, which came to scientific prominence as the vehicle for the first pregnancy test is exquisitely sensitive to human sex hormones. We have been determining how sex differences are created, during development, by the action of hormones secreted from the testes and the ovaries: and androgens and the estrogens. Our laboratory has shown that these hormones divert the developmental programs of cells that express specific hormone receptors and sculpt a male- or female-specific developmental pattern. The hormones act by controlling cell number and type. How these cellular and molecular events translate into sex-specific brain function and behaviors is the topic of this lecture.
Darcy Kelley was born in New York City; she attended Grinnell College in Iowa and was graduated from Barnard College of Columbia University in 1970. She was awarded a Ph.D. in 1975 from the Rockefeller University for studies carried out in the laboratory of Donald Pfaff and took her post-doctoral training there with Fernando Nottebohm. In 1978 she moved to Princeton University to be Assistant Professor in the Neuroscience and Behavior Program. Recruited to Columbia University in 1981 as a tenured Associate Professor, Dr. Kelley was promoted to full Professor in1987. From 1985 to 1989 she directed the Neural Systems and Behavior course at the Marine Biological Laboratory. Dr. Kelley founded Columbia's doctoral program in Neurobiology and Behavior in 1995 and currently serves as co-director. She has been Editor of the Journal of Neurobiology since 1986. Her honors include many distinguished lectureships. In addition, Dr. Kelley received the Jacobs Javits Neuroscience investigator award twice (1988-1995; 1995-2002). In 2002, she was named a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor, an award aimed at encouraging distinguished scientific researchers in creative approaches to undergraduate education.
Janis C. Weeks received her B.S. in Life Sciences from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She received her Ph. D. from the University of California, San Diego where she was a post doctoral research associate the same year. Beginning as an associate professor of Biology at the University of Oregon, she was appointed Head of the Department of Biology from 1998 to 2001, and has been a
professor there since 1995. Dr. Weeks started out at the MBL as a teaching assistant in 1978, becoming an instructor of "Neural Systems and Behavior" in 1985. Ten years later, she became a member of the Science Council in 2000. In 2003 Dr. Weeks became a trustee of the Grass Foundation.
Dr. Grafstein received her B. A. in Physiology from the University of Toronto (1951) and her Ph. D. in Physiology from McGill University, Montreal (1954). She did her postdoctoral work in the Department of Anatomy at University College London, and subsequently served on the faculty of McGill University and Rockefeller University. Since 1968 she has been a member of the Physiology Department at Weill Medical College of Cornell University, where in 1983 she was appointed the Vincent and Brooke Astor Distinguished Professor of Neuroscience. Among other scientific activities, Dr. Grafstein has served on the Advisory Council of NINDS and on the scientific advisory boards of several voluntary organizations concerned with spinal cord injury. She has held a number of elected positions in the Society for Neuroscience, including President of the Society in 1986-87. She has been a Grass Foundation Fellow at the MBL and a trustee of The Grass Foundation since1966. She was elected Vice-President in 2000. She has made important contributions to research in the areas of axonal transport and neuronal regeneration, and she is still internationally recognized for her seminal work on cortical spreading depression, which constituted her Ph. D. thesis research.
About the Forbes Lecture
Since 1959, the special two-part Forbes Lecture has been supported by The Grass Foundation, a private foundation which supports research and education in neuroscience. The lectures are given in honor of pioneering neurobiologist Alexander Forbes. Traditionally, the Forbes lecturer also spends several weeks at the MBL, working alongside the Grass Fellowship Program.
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