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Nikki Lee

Dr. Lee’s courses include Brain and Behavior, Hormones and Social Behavior. Her Social Behavior Lab investigates the neural and hormonal mechanisms underlying social behavior in non-human animals, in the lab and field, with a particular interest in the evolution of social behavior.

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Nikki Lee

Assistant Professor of Cognitive and Behavioral Science

Curriculum Vitae

Education

  • NSF Postdoctoral Fellow – University of California, Berkeley, 2022-2023
  • PhD – University of Massachusetts, Amherst, 2021
  • BA – Cornell University, 2015

Research

As a neuroendocrinologist and behavioral ecologist, I seek to understand how mechanisms in the brain contribute to the vast differences in social behavior evident among mammals. My lab is particularly interested in the hormonal mechanisms underlying sociality in diverse rodent species. Integrating investigation of neuroendocrine mechanisms with field work in natural populations, we ask why and how individuals and species are social, in Belding’s ground squirrels and other non-model rodents.

Teaching

  • Brain and Behavior (CBSC 111)
  • Hormones and Social Behavior (CBSC 298)

Selected Publications

  • Lee NS, Kim CY*, Beery AK. (2023). Peer social environment impacts behavior and dopamine D1 receptor density in prairie voles (Microtus ochrogaster). Neuroscience.

  • Lee NS, Beery AK. (2022). Selectivity and sociality: Aggression and affiliation shape vole social relationships. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience.

  • Beery AK, Lopez SA*, Blandino KL*, Lee NS, Bourdon NS*. (2021). Social selectivity and social motivation in voles. ELife, 10: e72684.

  • Lee NS, Beery AK. (2021). The role of dopamine signaling in prairie vole peer relationships. Hormones and Behavior, 127:104876.

  • Lee NS, Goodwin NL, Freitas KE*, Beery AK. (2019). Affiliation, aggression, and selectivity of peer relationships in meadow and prairie voles. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, 13:52.

  • Lee NS, Beery AK. (2019). Neural circuits underlying rodent sociality: A comparative approach. In: Coolen L, Grattan D (eds) Neuroendocrine Regulation of Behavior. Current Topics in Behavioral Neurosciences, vol 43. Springer.

  • Goodwin NL, Lopez SA*, Lee NS, Beery AK. (2018). Comparative role of reward in long-term peer and mate relationships in voles. Hormones and Behavior, 111:70-7.

*denotes undergraduate co-authors