Contact Information
ekfischerlab.com
Research Areas
Research Interests
Integrative approaches to brains, behavior, and evolution
Research Description
The goal of our research is to explore underlying mechanisms to understand how brains and behavior can be both strikingly flexible and remarkably robust, and how these phenomena simultaneously give rise to widespread similarities and prodigious diversity in animal behavior. We use integrative approaches to address these questions across hierarchical levels of biological organization (from gene networks, to neural circuits, to physiology, to behavior) and timescales (from immediate, to developmental, to evolutionary). We believe that fundamental principles governing brains and behavior are most apparent in evolutionary and developmental contexts, and we therefore combine lab and field studies to understand variation and adaptation in ecologically relevant behaviors.
Education
Postdoctoral Fellow (2017-2020) Stanford University, Stanford CA
Postdoctoral Fellow (2015-2017) Harvard University, Cambridge MA
PhD (2009 - 2015) Colorado State University, Fort Collins CO
BA (2003 - 2007) Cornell University, Ithaca NY
Additional Campus Affiliations
Assistant Professor, Evolution, Ecology, and Behavior
Affiliate, Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology
Recent Publications
Fischer, E. K., & O'Connell, L. A. (2020). Hormonal and neural correlates of care in active versus observing poison frog parents. Hormones and Behavior, 120, [104696]. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yhbeh.2020.104696
Fischer, E. K., Alvarez, H., Lagerstrom, K. M., McKinney, J. E., Petrillo, R., Ellis, G., & O'Connell, L. A. (2020). Neural correlates of winning and losing fights in poison frog tadpoles. Physiology and Behavior, 223, [112973]. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physbeh.2020.112973
Lynch, K. S., Louder, M. I. M., Friesen, C. N., Fischer, E. K., Xiang, A., Steele, A., & Shalov, J. (Accepted/In press). Examining the disconnect between prolactin and parental care in avian brood parasites. Genes, Brain and Behavior, 19(7), [e12653]. https://doi.org/10.1111/gbb.12653
Moskowitz, N. A., Dorritie, B., Fay, T., Nieves, O. C., Vidoudez, C., Cambridge Rindge and Latin 2017 Biology Class, Masconomet 2017 Biotechnology Class, Fischer, E. K., Trauger, S. A., Coloma, L. A., Donoso, D. A., & O’Connell, L. A. (2020). Land use impacts poison frog chemical defenses through changes in leaf litter ant communities. Neotropical Biodiversity, 6(1), lxxv-lxxxvii. https://doi.org/10.1080/23766808.2020.1744957
Fischer, E. K., Nowicki, J. P., & O'Connell, L. A. (2019). Evolution of affiliation: Patterns of convergence from genomes to behaviour. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 374(1777), [20180242]. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2018.0242