Allison Lau
Postdoctoral Scholar
PhD in Animal Behavior
My research focuses on understanding individual variation in the social communication of pair-
bonded animals. My dissertation work focused on understanding the proximate mechanisms
underlying vocal behavior in titi monkeys as well as their unique social looking behavior.
Beyond my dissertation work, I also studied communication in a variety of other systems
including gibbons, tarsiers, rhesus macaques, guinea pigs, prairie voles, seahorses, and coyotes.
My current work focuses on understanding the evolutionary mechanisms of pair bonding and
the ways in which different environments promote certain social systems. My research
program focuses on social behavior and social attachments most generally.
Please reach out at alljones@ucdavis.edu for any questions or research opportunity inquires.
Twitter: @AllisonRLau
For my most up-to-date publications, please see my Google Scholar profile.
Recent Publications
Relationships between cortisol and urinary androgens in female titi monkeys (Plecturocebus cupreus). Gen Comp Endocrinol. 2021
Parenting costs time: Changes in pair bond maintenance across pregnancy and infant rearing in a monogamous primate (Plecturocebus cupreus). New Dir Child Adolesc Dev. 2021
What is a pair bond? Horm Behav. 2021
Compositional variation in early-life parenting structures alters oxytocin and vasopressin 1a receptor development in prairie voles (Microtus ochrogaster). J Neuroendocrinol. 2021
Biobehavioral organization shapes the immune epigenome in infant rhesus Macaques (Macaca mulatta). Brain Behav Immun. 2021
Cannabinoid receptor Type 1 densities reflect social organization in Microtus. J Comp Neurol. 2021
Pharmacological Prevention of Neonatal Opioid Withdrawal in a Pregnant Guinea Pig Model. Front Pharmacol. 2021