My lab investigates the developmental and evolutionary bases for communication in humans. The nervous system is an important component of these processes but not the controlling component; it must act in concert with (and is often constrained by) the components of the body during development. Understanding this interaction between the brain and biomechanics as they build scaffolds for developmental changes in behavior is our over-arching goal. As such, my lab operates at the interface of neuroscience, developmental biology, morphology and evolution. We study how social communication emerges through the dynamic interactions between neural systems, the body, pre- and post-natal experience and socioecological context.