Duke Institute for Brain Sciences

I am interested in how organisms communicate. That is, I am interested in the process by which information passes from one individual to another, how this transfer influences the participants in the interaction, and how such communication systems evolve. My research addresses both proximate questions about mechanisms of signal production, perception and development, and ultimate questions about signal function and evolution. The proximate end of my work, of course, leads me to the brain. In specific, my lab has studied the influence of developmental stress on brain development and the ability of the brain to acquire and process complex signals, especially those involved in mate choice. Most recently, we have begun to look at behavioral and neural mechanisms underlying categorical perception, the process by which otherwise continuous sensory stimuli are parsed into discrete functional units.

Postdoctoral Fellow, Rockefeller University, 1984-1986

Ph.D., Cornell University, 1985

M.S., Tufts University, Behavioral Biology, 1978

B.S., Tufts University, Biology and Music, 1976

Prather, J. F., S. Nowicki, R. C. Anderson, S. Peters & R. A. Mooney (2009). Neural correlates of categorical perception in learned vocal communication. Nature Neuroscience 12(2):221-228.

DuBois, A., S. Nowicki & W. A. Searcy (2009). Swamp sparrows modulate vocal performance in an aggressive context. Biology Letters Dec 16. [Epub ahead of print].

Searcy, W. A. & S. Nowicki. (2008). Bird song and the problem of signal reliability. American Scientist 96: 114-121.