The Institute for Mind and Biology is comprised of twelve faculty Members from the Department of
Comparative Human Development and Psychology. In addition to their department appointments,
Members contribute significantly to the University’s interdisciplinary approach to Neuroscience and
Committees on Computational Neuroscience, Evolutionary Biology, Integrative Neuroscience, and
Neurobiology. Members also collaborate with other faculty at UChicago in the Biological Sciences
Division and Division of the Social Sciences as well as colleagues from around the globe.
The London Lab investigates how the brain develops, with special focus on how early experience can
alter neural function and behavior. The London Lab applies molecular and genomic tools in
combination with behavioral manipulations to uncover biological processes that promote and limit the
ability to learn across development. The lab uses the zebra finch songbird as the model system because
there are life-long behavioral effects of developmental experience, but only when that experience occurs
during specific phases. Despite outward differences, zebra finches have strong genomic, molecular,
neural, developmental, social, and behavioral parallels with humans. As such, the lab’s research
strategy discoveres mechanisms that may also be involved in human speech acquisition and other
developmentally learned behaviors.