Associate Professor Jakob Christensen-Dalsgaard's main interest is the function and evolution of the middle ear and directional hearing, mainly in reptiles, amphibians and birds. Ongoing research is within neuroethology, using neurophysiological techniques (auditory evoked responses and single-cell physiology), psychophysics and biophysics (laser vibrometry) and biorobotics.

Current research areas

Middle ear development

Studies of development are crucial to understand the evolution of the middle ears. The main current focus of my laboratory is developmental studies in frogs and toads, lizards and birds, combining anatomical, biophysical and neurophysiological techniques (mainly ABR).

Directional hearing

Directional hearing in lizards (like geckos) that have strongly coupled eardrums, leading to a highly directional ear. I am presently investigating the neural processing of the directional cues, and our biophysical and neural models has led to biorobotic implementations in sound-localizing robots.

Function (and loss) of the middle ear in frogs, toads and salamanders

Function (and loss) of the middle ear in frogs, toads and salamanders, with investigations of middle ear function and directionality in several frog and toad species. Work on 'earless' toads (that have a non-functional middle ear) in Ecuador and Peru has been done in collaboration with Kim Hoke, Colorado State University, and her former PhD Student Molly Womack, now assistant professor at Utah State University.