Stephen Suomi, PhD, Chief
The Laboratory of Comparative Ethology (LCE) carries out a program of basic biobehavioral research that investigates cognitive, social-emotional, and biological development in humans and in nonhuman primates. The LCE is especially interested in characterizing and understanding normative patterns of development in order to identify particularly recurrent or unusual patterns and to evaluate their consequences with respect to established norms. To characterize the developmental trajectories of individuals across a broad range of species, populations, and settings, the laboratory studies both genetic and environmental factors and their several interactions from a comparative perspective. Field and laboratory-based studies of biobehavioral development in nonhuman primates are designed specifically to facilitate comparisons with findings from long-term prospective investigations of human infants and their families and with data obtained by neuroscience techniques, thereby promoting translational analyses. Most studies rely on longitudinal designs in order to address basic issues of continuity versus change and relative stability of individual differences throughout development.
Stephen Suomi and his colleagues in the Comparative Behavioral Genetics Section investigate biological and behavioral development in selected nonhuman primate species, with a special focus on studying interactions between genetic and environmental factors that affect the course of individual developmental trajectories throughout the lifespan.
John Newman’s group, the Unit on Developmental Neuroethology, uses neuroscience techniques to study brain mechanisms involved in the production of various types of primate vocalizations, to examine subtle acoustical differences in these characteristic calls, and to investigate the calls’ specific functions in several primate species.
Marc Bornstein’s group, the Child and Family Research Section, examines cognitive, language, and social-emotional development in human infants, children, and adolescents with special emphasis on the relationships among early attentional processes, social stimulation from and interactions with care givers, and subsequent cognitive and social behavioral capabilities.