The Marler Lab loves to participate in educational outreach activities to instill passion for science and communicate our research to a broader audience!
Current Outreach Projects:
UW-Madison High School Science Expo
Educational Videos of Research
Educational Audio Recordings
Past Outreach Projects:
Expanding Your Horizons
Family Lab Days
UW-Madison High School Science Expo
This year, the Marler Lab ran a “Demo Booth” at ALAN‘s UW-Madison High School Science Expo!
We were grateful to meet some incredible high school students interested in pursuing science, and had many meaningful conversations about neuroscience, academia, and personal identity. We look forward to participating in the Science Expo again next year!
Educational Audio Recordings
California mice readily produce ultrasonic vocalizations. Take a listen!
Click HERE to Link to the full playlist on Soundcloud
Barks are loud calls that start in the human audible range before entering the ultrasonic range.
Barks are most commonly used as a defensive technique against an aggressor(1).
(1)= Read more here:
Rieger, NS, and Marler, CA. 2018. The function of ultrasonic vocalizations during territorial defence by pair-bonded male and female California mice. Animal Behaviour 135: 97-108 (Link).
Recording by Josh Pultorak.
Sustained Vocalizations (SVs) are long low-bandwidth calls used primarily during social situations.
-SVs predict interactions between members of a pair-bond(1).
-In pair-bonded males SVs are suppressed in response to novel females following testosterone injections(2).
-SV durations appear to be particularly important to the meaning of the call with shorter calls predicting greater aggression towards a same-sex member of the species(3).
(1)= Read more here:
Pultorak, JD, Matusinec, KR, Miller, ZK, Marler CA. 2017. Ultrasonic vocalization production and playback predicts intrapair and extrapair social behaviour in a monogamous mouse. Animal Behaviour 125: 13-23 (Link).
(2)= Read more here:
Pultorak, JD, Fuxjager, MJ, Kalcounis-Rueppell, MC, Marler, CA. 2015. Male fidelity expressed through rapid testosterone suppression of ultrasonic vocalizations to novel females in the monogamous California mouse. Hormones and Behavior 70: 47-56 (Link).
(3)= Read more here:
Rieger, NS, and Marler, CA. 2018. The function of ultrasonic vocalizations during territorial defence by pair-bonded male and female California mice. Animal Behaviour 135: 97-108) (Link).
Recording by Josh Pultorak.
Sweep-phrases are highly complex high frequency calls similar to song in other species.
-The function of these calls remains unknown, but they are present in response to same-sex intruders which suggests a possible role in territoriality(1).
-These calls have also been made during parent-offspring interactions (Guoynes, unpublished observations).
(1)= Read more here:
Rieger, NS, and Marler, CA. 2018. The function of ultrasonic vocalizations during territorial defence by pair-bonded male and female California mice. Animal Behaviour 135: 97-108 (Link).
Recordings by Nathan Rieger.
Educational Videos of Research
We are currently working on producing videos that demonstrate some of our projects in animal behavior. Check back soon!
Expanding Your Horizons
The Marler Lab hosts a Neuroscience workshop for girls ages 11-14 as part of the UW Madison’s Expanding Your Horizons Annual Conference. We provide the girls with exposure to multiple aspects of a career as a neuroscientist and researcher of animal behavior. Past activities have included hands-on brain dissections and scoring of animal behavior videos, as well as demonstrations of ultrasonic vocalizations in live animals and explanations of molecular methods.
Family Lab Days
The Marler Lab periodically invites the family and friends of lab members to attend a Family Lab Day during which we provide tours and discuss our research. The parents of undergraduate research assistants particularly love the opportunity to gain first-hand observations of their child’s research experience.
