Bio:
Eliot Brenowitz received his Ph.D. in 1982 from Cornell University, where his dissertation was on environmental influences on song communication in red-winged blackbirds. He did postdoctoral research at UCLA in the laboratory of Arthur Arnold, looking at the neuroendocrine basis of song duetting behavior in several species of tropical birds. Brenowitz joined the faculty at UW in 1987 and holds appointments as professor in the departments of Biology and Psychology and the Graduate Program in Neurobiology and Behavior. He is also a member of the Virginia Merrill Bloedel Hearing Research Center. Brenowitz has served as an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow and a Bloedel Hearing Research Scholar. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and of the Animal Behavior Society, and a recipient of a Research Scientist Development Award from the National Institutes of Health.
Research Interests:
 My research involves the integration between mechanism and function in animal behavior, with an emphasis on acoustic communication in birds and frogs. The principal current focus is on the song control system in the brains of songbirds. I emphasize a comparative, evolutionary approach to this system, and combine behavioral studies in the field with laboratory techniques in neuroendocrinology, neuroanatomy, moleclular biology, and signal analysis. I am currently pursuing three major topics of study in the song system. One concerns the physiological and molecular mechanisms, and the behavioral consequences, of seasonal plasticity observed in the morphology of song regions of the brain. A second topic concerns the recruitment of new neurons to a song nucleus in the forebrain of adult birds, studied from the perspective of its physiological regulation and the influence of environmental factors. The third topic relates to the observation that neurons in song control nuclei receive input from auditory regions, and respond selectively to the presentation of conspecific song. I am investigating the role of song nuclei in the behavioral recognition of conspecific song in the contexts of mate choice and territorial defense.
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Selected Publications:
A. Theoretical and review publications:
Brenowitz, E. 2002. Birdsong: integrating physics, physiology, and behavior. Journal of Comparative Physiology 188:827-828.
Brenowitz, E. 2004. Plasticity in the adult avian song control system. In: Behavioral neurobiology of bird song, P. Zeigler and P. Marler (Eds.), Annals of the New York Academy of Science 1016:560-585.
Brenowitz, E.A. and Beecher, M.D. 2005. Song learning in birds: diversity and plasticity, opportunities and challenges. Trends in Neurosciences 28:127-132, invited submission.
Brenowitz, E. Plasticity of the adult avian song control system. 2009. In: The Neurobiology and Behavior of Birdsong, P. Zeigler and P. Marler (Eds.), Cambridge University Press.
Brenowitz, E.A., Rose, G.J., and Alder, T. 2001. The neuroethology of acoustic communication in the Pacific treefrog. In: Recent advances in anuran communication. M.J. Ryan (Ed.). Smithsonian Institution Press, in press.
Tramontin, A.D. and Brenowitz, E.A. 2000. Seasonal plasticity in adult brains. Invited submission to Trends in Neurosciences 23:251-258.
Schlinger, B.A. and Brenowitz, E.A. 2002. Neural and hormonal control of birdsong. In: Donald Pfaff (Ed.), Hormones, Brain, and Behavior, vol. 2, pp. 799-839. Academic Press.
Beecher, M.D. and Brenowitz, E.A. 2005. Functional aspects of song learning in birds. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 20:143-149, invited submission.
B. Research Publications:
Searcy, W. and Brenowitz, E. 1988. Sexual differences in species recognition of avian song. Nature 332:152-154.
Brenowitz, E. 1991. Altered perception of species-specific song by female birds after lesions of a forebrain nucleus. Science 251:303-305.
Brenowitz, E., Kroodsma, D., Nalls, B., and Wingfield, J. 1991. Seasonal changes in avian song control nuclei without seasonal changes in song repertoires. Journal of Neuroscience 11:1367-1374.
Brenowitz, E. and Rose, G. 1994. Behavioral plasticity mediates aggression in choruses of the Pacific treefrog. Animal Behaviour 47:633-641.
Brenowitz, E., Lent, K., and Kroodsma, D. 1995. Brain space for learned song in birds develops independently of song learning. Journal of Neuroscience 15:6281-6286.
Smith, G.T., Brenowitz, E., Wingfield, J., and Baptista, L. 1995. Seasonal changes in song nuclei and song behavior in Gambel's white-crowned sparrows. Journal of Neurobiology 28:114-125.
Smith, G.T., Brenowitz, E.A., and Wingfield, J.C. 1997. Seasonal changes in testosterone, neural attributes of song control nuclei, and song structure in wild songbirds. Journal of Neuroscience 17:6001-6010.
Tramontin, A.D., Wingfield, J.C., and Brenowitz, E.A. 1999. Contributions of social cues and photoperiod to seasonal plasticity in the adult avian song control system. Journal of Neuroscience 19:476-483.
Soma, K.K., Hartman, V.N., Wingfield, J.C., and Brenowitz, E.A. 1999. Seasonal changes in androgen receptor immunoreactivity in the song nucleus HVc of a wild bird. Journal of Comparative Neurology 409:224-236.
Brenowitz, E.A. and Rose, G.J. 1999. Female choice and male calling plasticity in the Pacific treefrog. Animal Behaviour 57:1337-1342.
Tramontin, A.D. and Brenowitz, E.A. 1999. A field study of seasonal neuronal incorporation into the song control system of a songbird that lacks adult song learning. Journal of Neurobiology 40:316-326..
Tramontin, A.D., Hartman, V.N., and Brenowitz, E.A. 2000. Seasonal cues induce rapid and sequential growth in adult avian song control circuits. Journal of Neuroscience 20:854-861.
Tramontin, A.D., Perfito, N., Wingfield, J.C., and Brenowitz, E.A. 2001. Seasonal growth of song control nuclei precedes seasonal reproductive development in wild adult song sparrows. General and Comparative Endocrinology 122:1-9.
Brenowitz, E.A. and Lent, K. 2001. Afferent input is necessary for seasonal growth and maintenance of adult avian song control circuits. Journal of Neuroscience 21:2320-2329.
Brenowitz, E.A. and Lent, K. 2002. Act locally and think globally: intracerebral testosterone implants induce seasonal-like growth of adult avian song control circuits. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 99:12421-12426.
Tramontin, A.D., Wingfield, J.C., and Brenowitz, E.A. 2003. Androgens and estrogens induce seasonal-like growth of song nuclei in the adult songbird brain. Journal of Neurobiology 57:130-140.
Moore, I.T., Wingfield, J.C., and Brenowitz, E.A. 2004. Plasticity of the avian song control system in response to localized environmental cues in an equatorial songbird. Journal of Neuroscience 24:10182-10185.
Thompson, C.K. and Brenowitz, E.A. 2005. Seasonal change in neuron size and spacing but not neuronal recruitment in a basal ganglia nucleus in the avian song control system. Journal of Comparative Neurology 481:276-283.
Meitzen, J., Perkel, D.J., and Brenowitz, E.A. 2007. Seasonal changes in intrinsic electrophysiological activity of song control neurons in wild song sparrows. Journal of Comparative Physiology A, 193:677–683
Thompson, C.K., Bentley, G.E., and Brenowitz, E.A. 2007. Rapid regression of the avian song control system following a transition from breeding to non-breeding physiology. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 104: 15520–15525..
Brenowitz, E.A, Rubel, E.W, and Lent, K.L. Auditory feedback and song production do not regulate seasonal growth of song control circuits in adult White-crowned Sparrows. 2007. Journal of Neuroscience 27:6810-6814.
Meitzen, J., Moore, I., Lent, K., Brenowitz, E.A., and Perkel, D.J. 2007. Steroid hormones act transsynaptically within the forebrain to regulate neuronal phenotype and song stereotypy Journal of Neuroscience 27:12045–1205.
Thompson, C.K. and Brenowitz, E.A. 2008. Caspase inhibitor infusion protects an avian song control circuit from seasonal-like neurodegeneration. Journal of Neuroscience 28:7130 –7136.
Thompson, C.K. and Brenowitz, E.A. 2009. Neurogenesis in an adult avian song nucleus is reduced by decreasing caspase-mediated apoptosis. Journal of Neuroscience 29:4586–4591.
Wissman, A-M. and Brenowitz, E.A. 2009. The role of neurotrophins in the seasonal-like growth of the avian song control system. Journal of Neuroscience 29:6461– 6471.
Meitzen, J., Weaver, A.L., Brenowitz, E.A., and Perkel, D.J. 2009. Plastic and stable electrophysiological properties of adult avian forebrain song-control neurons across changing breeding conditions. Journal of Neuroscience 29:6558–6567.
Teaching Interests:
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