Robert J. Gegear

Biography

Education: Ph.D. University of Western Ontario 2002 Postdoc University of Toronto 2005 Postdoc University of Massachusetts Medical School 2009 Our laboratory investigates brain-behavior relationships in pollinating insects, with particular focus on the cognitive processes and brain structures that underlie foraging and the role of such processes in the evolution and maintenance of floral complexity. We address research questions using a wide variety of experimental approaches, including controlled behavioral experiments, genetic analysis, computer modeling, and confocal microscopy. Insect pollinators, especially the bumblebee and monarch butterfly, are an excellent model to study brain-behavior relationships within a larger ecological and evolutionary framework. Because they effectively manage an incredible amount of sensory information under natural conditions, their behavioral decisions have significant ecological and evolutionary consequences for flowering plants; they are amenable to controlled laboratory- and field experiments. Notably, many insect pollinators also play a vital role in agro-ecosystems (e.g., bees pollinate two-thirds of crop species worldwide and have an estimated economic value of $3 billion per year in the United States alone), making our research on their brain processes and behavior of tremendous economic and social importance.

Research Interest

Mechanistic and functional analysis of multimodal sensory integration; Examination of adaptive variation in brain plasticity and behavior; Role of animal cognition in the evolutionary diversification of flower; Pollinator ecology and conservation