Andrew Bass

Horace White Professor of Neurobiology and Behavior

Image of Andrew Bass
W239 Mudd Hall
ahb3@cornell.edu
607/254-4372

Departments and programs

  • Neurobiology and Behavior

Affiliated Colleges

  • College of Arts and Sciences

Links

Keywords

 

 

acoustic communication

 

Overview

I am a behavioral and evolutionary neuroscientist. The goal of my teaching and research endeavors is to explain how phenotypic variation in vertebrate brain organization leads to adaptive behavioral phenotypes. I communicate these ideas through the courses that I teach and the seminars and symposia that I participate in each year both nationally and internationally. It is in the same adaptive context that my research projects use sound-producing/ vocalizing teleost fish as model systems to establish the operating principles of the vocal and auditory systems of vertebrates.

Research Focus

Research in our laboratory focuses on two projects concerning the central and peripheral nervous systems of sound-producing/ "vocalizing" teleost fishes: (1) Characterization, and hormonal influences on, sex differences in the morphology of single, physiologically-identified neurons. (2) Temporal and spectral encoding of acoustic communication signals. These projects revolve around studies of alternative mating tactics in species with two male morphs that differ in a large suite of behavioral, neurobiological and neuroendocrine characters including divergent acoustic courtship behaviors and vocal control pathways. We answer questions regarding the existence of behaviors and their underlying mechanisms using a multidisciplinary, neuroethological approach that combines field studies of vocal communication with laboratory studies of the nervous system that utilize one or more of the following approaches: neurophysiology combined with anatomical tract tracing, neuroendocrinology, electron microscopy, immunocytochemistry, and in situ hybridization. 

Publications

  • Akbari, N., R. L. Tatarsky, K.E. Kolkman, J.R. Fetcho, C. Xu, A. H. Bass (2024) Label-free, whole-brain in vivo mapping in an adult vertebrate with third harmonic generation microscopy. Journal of Comparative Neurology 532 (4): e25614. doi: 10.1002/cne.25614
  • Bass. A. H. (2024) A tale of two males: behavioral and neural mechanisms of alternative reproductive tactics in midshipman fish. Hormones and Behavior 161:105507. doi: 10.1016/j.yhbeh.2024.105507.
  • Schuppe, E. R., I. Ballagh, N. Akbari, W. Fang, J. T. Perelmuter, C. Radtke, M. A. Marchaterre, A H. Bass (2024) Midbrain node for context-specific vocalization in fish. Nature Communications 15:189 doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-43794-y
  • Bass, A. H. (2023) California singing fish. Current Biology 33(6): R208-R210. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2023.02.014.
  • Akbari, N., R. L. Tatarsky, K.E. Kolkman, J.R. Fetcho, A. H. Bass, C. Xu (2022) Whole-brain optical access in a small adult vertebrate with two- and three-photon microscopy. iScience 25:105191. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2022.105191.
  • Rice, A.N., S. C. Farina, A. J. Makowski, I. M. Kaatz, P. S. Lobel, W. E. Bemis, A. H. Bass (2022) Evolutionary patterns in sound production across fishes. Ichthyology and Herpetology 110, 1–12. doi.org/10.1643/i2020172
  • Schuppe, E. R., M. D. Zhang, J. T. Perelmuter, M. A. Marchaterre, A H. Bass (2022) Oxytocin-like receptor expression in evolutionarily conserved nodes of a vocal network associated with male courtship in a teleost fish. Journal of Comparative Neurology 530(6): 903-922. doi: 10.1002/cne.25257.
  • Tatarsky, R. L., Z. Guo, S. C. Campbell, H. Kim, W. Fang, J. T. Perelmuter, E. R. Schuppe, K. W. Conway, H. K. Reeve, A. H. Bass (2022) Acoustic and postural displays in a miniature and transparent teleost fish, Danionella dracula. Journal of Experimental Biology 225(16):jeb244585. doi: 10.1242/jeb.244585.
  • Tripp, J.A., N.Y. Feng, A. H. Bass (2021) To hum or not to hum: Neural transcriptome signature of male courtship vocalization in a teleost fish. Genes, Brain and Behavior, May 7: e12740. doi: 10.1111/gbb.12740. 
  • Chagnaud, B.P., J. Perelmuter, P. M. Forlano, A. H. Bass (2021) Gap junction mediated feed-forward inhibition ensures ultra-precise temporal patterning in vocal behavior. eLife 10: e59390. doi: 10.7554/eLife.59390. 
  • Kéver L., E. Parmentier, A. H. Bass, B.P. Chagnaud (2021). Morphological diversity of acoustic and electric communication systems in mochokid catfish. Journal of Comparative Neurology 529(8):1787-1809. doi: 10.1002/cne.25057
  • Chow, D. M., D. Sinefeld, K.E. Kolkman, D.G. Ouzounov, N. Akbari, R. Tatarsky, A. Bass, C. Xu, J.R. Fetcho (2020) Deep three-photon imaging of the brain in intact adult zebrafish. Nature Methods. 17(6): 605-608. doi: 10.1038/s41592-020-0819-7. 
  • Tripp, J. A., I. Salas-Allende, A. J. Makowski, A. H. Bass (2020) Phylogenetically shared behavioral function for preoptic galanin neurons in fish with alternative male reproductive tactics. Journal of Neuroscience 40(7):1549-1559. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1276-19.2019.
  • Tripp, J. A., N. Y. Feng, A. H. Bass (2018) Behavioral tactic more strongly predicts preoptic-hypothalamic gene expression than developmental morph in a fish with alternative reproductive tactics. Proceedings of the Royal Society Series B 285 (1871): 20172742
  • Feng, N.Y. and Bass, A. H. (2016) ‘Singing' fish rely on circadian clock and melatonin for the timing of nocturnal courtship vocalization. Current Biology 26(19): 2681-2689.

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