Neurobiology of Social Sensory-Motor Communication: From Speech to Dance

Constantina Theofanopoulou is the Herbert and Neil Singer Senior Research Associate at Rockefeller University and Visiting Scholar at New York University. She is the Director of the Neurobiology of Social Communication laboratory. Her research aim is to understand the neural circuits of complex sensory motor behaviors that serve social communication, specifically, speech and dance, and to identify possible therapies for speech and motor disorders. Constantina has received more than 20 awards, including the distinction in the Forbes 2021 list and the Next Generation Leader recognition from the Allen Institute. She is also actively involved in the dissemination of science to the general public, as well as in the support of underrepresented minorities in science. She has served as a New York Academy of Sciences STEM mentor in underserved communities throughout NYC, and in 2021, she was voted networking coordinator at the Council of the Rockefeller Inclusive Science Initiative.
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Dr. Theofanopoulou’s overall goal is to dissect the neural circuits of complex sensory motor behaviors that serve social communication, specifically, speech and dance, and to identify possible therapies for disorders that include deficits in these behaviors (e.g., Autism Spectrum Disorders and Parkinson’s Disease). In her lecture, she is going to discuss her work on the role of the social motivation circuitry feeding into the vocal learning pathways and will go through her findings in zebra finches, Bengalese finches, white rumped munias, and humans, that indicated a role of the neurohormone oxytocin in vocal production. She will also explain the genomic tools she developed to translate her oxytocin findings across vertebrates. Shifting gears to her present and future studies, Dr. Theofanopoulou will also introduce her projects and first findings in a series of studies in humans aiming at deciphering possible similarities between speech and dance, ranging from the level of the brain pathways involved (via fMRI and EEG), the genes underlying them (via single nucleus RNA-sequencing and genome sequencing), to clinical applications, using dance as a treatment for speech deficits.