Elizabeth Adkins-Regan facts for kids

Elizabeth Adkins-Regan, born in July 1945, is an American scientist. She studies how hormones and the brain control animal behavior. She is famous for her work on how birds reproduce and develop differences between males and females. She is now a retired professor at Cornell University.

Education and Career

Elizabeth Adkins-Regan started her college journey at the University of Maryland, College Park. She earned her bachelor's degree in Psychology in 1967. She then went on to get her Ph.D. in Physiological Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania in 1971. This field studies how the body and brain affect behavior. Her main research for her Ph.D. looked at how hormones control mating behavior in Japanese quail.

After finishing her studies, she became a professor. She taught at Bucknell University from 1972 to 1974. Then, she taught at the State University of New York College at Cortland from 1974 to 1975. In 1975, she joined the faculty at Cornell University. She became a full professor there in 1988.

In 1986, she received a special award called the Fulbright Research Scholar Award. This allowed her to work as a visiting scientist in France. There, she studied how pigs develop different behaviors based on their sex.

In 2005, she wrote an important book called Hormones and Animal Social Behavior. This book brought together a lot of information about how hormones affect how animals act in groups. She also led the journal Hormones and Behavior as its Editor-in-Chief from 2008 to 2011. From 2015 to 2017, she was the President of the Society for Behavioral Neuroendocrinology.

Research on Birds

Dr. Adkins-Regan's early research focused on Japanese quail. She studied how male and female behaviors develop in birds. Birds have a different way of determining sex than mammals.

Sexual Development in Quail

Her work showed that female-like reproductive behavior in quail can be started in both males and females. This happens if they are treated with a hormone called estrogen. She also found that if male quail embryos were treated with estrogen, their behavior changed. These adult males would not show typical male courtship behavior. This was true even if they were later given testosterone.

These findings suggested a new idea for how birds develop. It seemed that a hormone called estradiol, made by females, was responsible for these differences. So, female birds might not show male behaviors because they were exposed to their own estrogens early on. Scientists could make this happen in males by giving them estradiol.

Studies with Zebra Finches

In the 1980s, her research expanded to include zebra finches. These birds are socially monogamous, meaning they usually have one partner. She did similar experiments with them. She showed how hormones affect the development of different behaviors in these songbirds.

Later Research and King Quail

Dr. Adkins-Regan's later work looked at many reproductive and social behaviors in birds. This included how they court, choose partners, form pairs, mate, care for their young, and show aggression. In 2016, she also published research showing that King quail form strong pair bonds. King quail are closely related to Japanese quail.

Hormones and Animal Social Behavior

On August 7, 2005, Dr. Adkins-Regan published her book, Hormones and Animal Social Behavior.

Personal Life

Elizabeth Adkins-Regan has been married to Dennis T. Regan since 1980. He is a social psychologist at Cornell University.

Awards and Recognitions

• Daniel S. Lehrman Lifetime Achievement Award in Behavioral Neuroendocrinology, 2019
• Exemplar Award, Center for the Integrative Study of Animal Behavior, Indiana University, 2017
• Howard Bern Award, Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology (SICB), 2016
• Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), elected 1984
• Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science, elected 1998
• Fellow of the Animal Behavior Society, elected 1991
• American Fulbright Research Scholar Award, 1986-1987
• National Science Foundation Graduate Fellow, 1967-1971

Notable Publications

• Adkins, E. K., & Adler, N. T. (1972). Hormonal control of behavior in the Japanese quail. Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology, 81(1), 27–36. doi:10.1037/h0033315
• Adkins, E. K. (1975). Hormonal basis of sexual differentiation in the Japanese quail. Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology, 89(1), 61–71. doi:10.1037/h0076406
• Adkins, E. K. (1976). Embryonic exposure to an antiestrogen masculinizes behavior of female quail. Physiology & Behavior, 17(2), 357–359. doi: 10.1016/0031-9384(76)90088-3
• Adkins, E. K., & Pniewski, E. E. (1978). Control of reproductive behavior by sex steroids in male quail. Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology, 92(6), 1169–1178. doi:10.1037/h0077523
• Adkins, E. K. (1979). Effect of Embryonic Treatment with Estradiol or Testosterone on Sexual Differentiation of the Quail Brain. Critical Period and Dose-Response Relationships. Neuroendocrinology, 29(3), 178–185. doi:10.1159/000122920
• Adkins-Regan, E., Abdelnabi, M., Mobarak, M., Ottinger, M. A. (1990). Sex steroid levels in developing and adult male and female zebra finches (Poephila guttata). Gen. Comp. Endocrinol. 78(1), 93-109. doi:10.1016/0016-6480(90)90051-m.
• Adkins-Regan, E. (2005). Hormones and Animal Social Behavior. Princeton University Press. ISBN: 9780691092478