Associate Professor
Member, CISAB

Postdoctoral fellow, Cornell University, 1998-2000
Ph.D., Cornell University, 1998
B.A., University of North Florida, 1992

Program Affiliation: Evolution, Ecology and Behavior

Research Groups Affiliation: Behavior | Evolution

Phone: 812/856-4756
Fax:812/855-6705
Email Jim

Goodson Lab website

Our research focuses on a network of brain regions that regulate social behavior in all vertebrates. We work mostly in songbirds, but have also conducted studies in rodents and teleost fish. Songbirds exhibit extraordinary diversity in social behavior and provide us with opportunities to address questions that are difficult or impossible to address in other taxa. For instance, the estrildid finch family provides us the virtually unique ability to determine how neural and motivational processes have evolved in relation to sociality, as defined by species-typical group sizes. In most vertebrate groups, species differences in grouping are confounded with numerous other variables such as mating system, patterns of parental care and various aspects of ecology that may influence neuroendocrine systems. However, all estrildid species exhibit long-term pair bonds and biparental care, and thus we can identify species that  display massive variation in group sizes while still being closely matched in other aspects of behavior and ecology. We are currently working with five species of estrildids including species that live in territorial pairs, small groups, and large groups that occasionally contain thousands of individuals.

To date, the majority of our work on sociality has focused on the nonapeptides vasotocin and mesotocin, which are homologues of mammalian vasopressin and oxytocin. We have identified anatomical and functional properties of nonapeptide circuits that closely match species differences in behavior, and we have further shown that nonapeptide systems can be manipulated to influence an individual’s choice of group size, without simultaneously influencing that individual’s decision to be social.

In addition to our work on sociality, we conduct comparative anatomical studies with the goal of learning how the social brain has evolved across all vertebrate taxa, and we use a variety of functional approaches to establish the behavioral properties of specific brain regions and neurochemical systems. Much of our work has shown that social behavior circuits of the basal forebrain are structurally and functionally similar across all vertebrate classes, suggesting that our work in birds and fish should be informative for a broad range of species, including mammals.

A male violet-eared waxbill (Uraeginthus granatina; left) and a group of zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata; right). These are two of the five estrildid finch species being studied in the lab. The species are similar in most aspects of behavior and ecology, but differ strongly in sociality. For instance, whereas violet-eared waxbills are territorial and live as male-female pairs, zebra finches are highly gregarious and live in groups of 100 or more. Photos courtesy D. Swanepoel and G. Chapman, respectively.

Goodson, J. L., Schrock, S. E., Klatt, J. D., Kabelik, D., Kingsbury, M. A. (2009) Mesotocin and nonapeptide receptors promote songbird flocking behavior. Science 325, 862-866.

Goodson, J. L., Kabelik, D., Kelly, A. M., Rinaldi, J., Klatt, J. D. (2009) Midbrain dopamine neurons reflect affiliation phenotypes in finches and are tightly coupled to courtship. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 106, 8737-8742.

Goodson J. L., Wang, Y.A. (2006). Valence-sensitive neurons exhibit divergent functional profiles in gregarious and asocial species. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 103, 17013-17017.

Goodson J. L., Evans A. K., Wang, Y. (2006). Neuropeptide binding reflects convergent and divergent evolution in species-typical group sizes. Hormones and Behavior, 50, 223-236.

Goodson J. L. (2005). The vertebrate social behavior network: Evolutionary themes and variations (Frank Beach Award paper). Hormones and Behavior, 48, 11-22.

Goodson J. L., Evans A. K., Lindberg L., Allen, C. D. (2005). Neuro-evolutionary patterning of sociality. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, series B, 272, 227-235.

Goodson J. L., Evans A. K., Lindberg L. (2004). Chemoarchitectonic subdivisions of the songbird septum and a comparative overview of septum chemical anatomy in jawed vertebrates. Journal of Comparative Neurology 473, 293-314.