Current Research Projects

We are interested in understanding how animals respond to environmental challenges in an ever-changing world. Our current research has three main areas of focus:

• The neurobiology of neophobia. Some individuals respond to new objects, foods, or environments with wariness (also called neophobia, or “fear of the new”), whereas others are willing to approach and explore. Because novel urban and suburban environments are replacing natural environments on a global scale, neophobia is a behavior with critical ecological and evolutionary relevance for wild populations, and this research seeks to understand how neurobiological differences contribute to behavior differences, the situations that can cause individuals to change their behavior, and whether invasion success may be linked to differences in neophobia. This research involves house sparrows, Eurasian tree sparrows, green anoles, and brown anoles.

  Selected publications:

  • Krajcir, K. J., T. R. Kelly, M. G. Kimball, E. B. Cochran, K. R. Stansberry, B. A. Dusang, A. Patel, D. F. Masri, S. E. Lipshutz, and C. R. Lattin. 2024. Eurasian tree sparrows are more food neophobic and habituate to novel objects more slowly than house sparrows. Biological Invasions 26:3677–3693.

  • Kimball, M. G., E. B. Gautreaux, K. E. Couvillion, T. R. Kelly, K. R. Stansberry and C. R. Lattin. 2022. Novel objects alter immediate early gene expression globally for ZENK and regionally for c-Fos in neophobic and non-neophobic house sparrows. Behavioral Brain Research 428:113863.

  • Lattin, C. R., T. R. Kelly, M. W. Kelly and K. M. Johnson. 2022. Constitutive gene expression differs in three brain regions important for cognition in neophobic and non-neophobic house sparrows (Passer domesticus). PLOS One.

  • Kelly, T. R., M. G. Kimball, K. R. Stansberry and C. R. Lattin. 2020. No, you go first: phenotype and social context affect house sparrow neophobia. Biology Letters 16:20200286.

• The effects of climate change on sibling competition. Birds lay at most one egg a day, and usually only start incubating after their clutches are almost complete. However, warming spring and summer temperatures can jump-start egg development, which in turn can cause bigger size differences between siblings that hatch early and those that hatch late. This research in European starlings seeks to understand how being a big or small bird in a nest affects sibling competition and nestling growth, physiology, and survival.

• Interactions between the immune system and the stress response. Some diseases, like avian malaria, are expected to benefit from climate change. Wild animals are also increasingly exposed to stressors like habitat degradation and novel predators, which can cause increased secretion of corticosterone, one of the main stress hormones in birds. This house sparrow research is focused on understanding how corticosterone can be helpful or harmful during infection, and the physiological differences between animals that are resistant and vulnerable to pathogens, partly to anticipate the future spread of disease.