Assistant Professor

Neuroscience, Psychology

Dr. Fernández-Peters was born in San José, Costa Rica and obtained her BSc in Biology at the University of Costa Rica. As an undergraduate student, she gained research experience in taxonomy of small mammals and field expeditions at the National Museum of Natural History. An interest in animal behavior motivated her to pursue graduate studies in the United States. She completed a MSc in Ecology, Evolution and Systematics at the University of Missouri-St. Louis where she studied chemical and vocal communication of the Neotropical singing mouse. After that, she worked as a coordinator of a REU program for Native American and Pacific Islanders at the Organization for Tropical Studies in Costa Rica. She moved back to the US to start a PhD Program in Behavioral & Evolutionary Neuroscience in the Department of Psychology at Cornell University. She studied vocal communication in the golden hamster and examined how vocal production is modulated by social context and rapid hormone changes. After finishing, she started postdoctoral training in auditory neurophysiology and communication in mice and bats at Washington State University Vancouver. In 2017, she was hired as a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. There, she had the opportunity to continue her research training, this time working with songbirds, and steroid neuromodulation of auditory processing.

Office: Tutt Science 306K
Laboratory: Tutt Science 313
Twitter @neuromafe
Website: https://acnlab.weebly.com/

Assistant Professor of Psychology: 2021-
First year at Colorado College: 2021

Research interests

 

Dr. Fernández-Peters’ research focuses on neural and hormonal mechanisms underlying social communication, particularly the production and perception of vocalizations. The sensitivity of the nervous system to auditory social stimuli changes depending on the acute release and action of hormones. Moreover, hormone release can be regulated by motivation, social context and learned experiences. Her primary research focuses on how these factors modulate social communication and auditory learning. She uses a combination of pharmacological, neurophysiological, bioacoustic and behavioral approaches in rodents and more recently, in songbirds. Gregarious songbirds learn to communicate within complex social groups and under high levels of background noise. Their auditory processing of song can be rapidly modulated by steroid signaling and social interactions. In humans, the neural basis of speech perception and attention under challenging acoustic conditions such as background noise is not well understood, and songbirds offer the unique opportunity to explore these questions at physiological and behavioral levels in both males and females.

 

Publications

Fernández-Vargas, M., M. Macedo-Lima & L. Remage-Healey. 2024. Acute aromatase inhibition impairs neural and behavioral auditory scene analysis in zebra finches. ENeuro,  11(3):1-22. link

Macedo-Lima, M. Fernández-Vargas & L. Remage-Healey. 2024. Social reinforcement guides operant behavior and auditory learning in a songbird. Animal Behaviour, 210:127-137. link

Podos, J. & Fernández-Vargas, M. 2022. Mating displays: the interface of mechanism, function and evolution. Animal Behaviour 184:135-147. link

Fernández-Vargas, M., T. Riede & B. Pasch. 2022 Mechanisms and constraints underlying acoustic variation in rodents. Animal Behaviour 184:131-134. link 

Ramírez-Fernández, J.D., F.J. Durán A. & M. Fernández-Vargas. 2020. First record of Tweedy’s Crab-eating Rat Ichthyomys tweedii Anthony, 1921 (Cricetidae, Sigmodontinae) for Costa Rica. CheckList 16:435-440. link

Fernández-Vargas, M. 2018b. Vocal signals of sexual motivation in male and female rodents. Current Sexual Health Reports10:315-328. link

Fernández-Vargas, M. 2018a. Presence of a potential competitor and its individual identity modulate ultrasonic vocalizations in male hamsters. Animal Behaviour 145:11-27. link

Olson, C. R., Fernández-Vargas, M., Portfors, C. V., & Mello, C. V. 2018. Black Jacobin hummingbirds vocalize above the known hearing range of birds. Current Biology, 28(5), R204-R205. link. Popular press about the article include The New York Times and National Geographic.

Fernández-Vargas, M. 2017. Rapid effects of estrogens and androgens on temporal and spectral features in ultrasonic vocalizations, Hormones and Behavior 94: 69-83. link

Fernández-Vargas, M. & R.E. Johnston. 2015. Ultrasonic vocalizations in golden hamsters (Mesocricetus auratus) reveal modest sex differences and nonlinear signals of sexual motivation. PLoS ONE 10(2): e0116789. link 

Adkins-Regan, E., N.M. Baran, M. Fernandez-Vargas, E.M. Kelly & K.O. Smiley. 2014. Review of the book “Oxytocin, Vasopressin and Related Peptides in the Regulation of Behavior”. Edited by E. Choleris, D.W. Pfaff & M. Kavaliers: Cambridge University Press (2013). Animal Behaviour, 87, 240-241. link

Fernández-Vargas, M., Z. Tang-Martínez & S. M. Phelps. 2011. Singing, allomarking and allogrooming behavior during inter- and intra- sexual encounters in the Neotropical short-tailed singing mouse (Scotinomys teguina). Behaviour 148: 945-965. link

Fernández-Vargas, M., Z. Tang-Martínez & S. M. Phelps. 2007. Olfactory responses of male and female Neotropical singing mice (Scotinomys teguina) to odors of the mid-ventral sebaceous gland: Discrimination of conspecifics, gender and female reproductive condition. Journal of Chemical Ecology 34:429-437. link

Rodríguez-Herrera, B., D.E. Wilson, M. Fernández & W. Pineda. 2005. La Mastozoología en Costa Rica: historia, recolecta, localidades y composición de especies. Brenesia 63-64:89-112. link

Rodríguez-H, B, W. Pineda, M. Fernández & R.K. LaVal. 2003. First record of Lasiurus intermedius H. Allen (Vespertilionidae) from Costa Rica. Bat Research News. 44(3): 91

Popular Press articles

Fernández-Vargas, M. 2018. ¿Se puede elegir ser homosexual? Semanario Universidad, Universidad de Costa Rica. Published online only link

Rodríguez-H, B., M. Fernández & W. Pineda. 2002. Educación Ambiental en torno a murciélagos. Rev. Ambientales (24):61-67. link