Education
Ph. D.
Indiana University Bloomington 2004-2010
Biology: Ecology, Evolution and Behavior; Minor: Neuroscience
B. S. cum laude
University of Maryland Baltimore County 2000–2004
Biological Sciences; Minor: Chemistry
Biography
Associate Professor
Notre Dame of Maryland University
Department of Biology
2024-Present
Associate Professor
Benedictine University
Department of Biological Sciences
2022-2024
Assistant Professor
Benedictine University
Department of Biological Sciences
2016-2022
Visiting Assistant Professor
St. Mary’s College of Maryland
Department of Biology
2015-2016
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Columbia University
Department of Biological Sciences
2010-2015
Research Interests
How does the brain generate social behavior? Successful social interaction requires the brain to receive and process sensory signals that communicate complex information and generate motor behavior fitting to the social context. My research examines social behavior from sensation to action, examining links between sensory and motor regions through the forebrain, and the role of these pathways in generating socially appropriate behavior. Using behavioral experiments, in vivo and in vitro physiology, I study an evolutionarily conserved neural network that is critical for vertebrate social behavior.
The current focus in my laboratory is an NIH-funded investigation on the effects of bisphenol-A (BPA) on social vocal development. BPA is a known endocrine disrupting chemical found in common items from plastic to paper receipts. Though low levels are considered safe for acute, adult exposure, the impact of long-term, low-dose exposure during development is an understudied phenomenon with potentially serious impacts on human health.
Publications
Hall, Ian C., Darcy B. Kelley. Endocrine Regulation of Vocal Motor Behavior and Auditory Processing in Anuran Amphibians in Neuroendocrine Regulation of Animal Vocalization: Neuroendocrine mechanisms of sound production and perception and how anthropogenic factors can compromise animal communication, 1st edition. (2021) Cheryl Rosenfeld and Frauke Hoffmann, eds. London, UK. Academic Press, Elsevier, p. 426. ISBN 978-0-12-815160-0.
Kwong-Brown, Ursula, Martha L. Tobias, Damian Elias, Ian C. Hall, Coen Elemans, and Darcy B. Kelley. (2019) The return to water in ancestral Xenopus was accompanied by a novel mechanism for producing and shaping vocal signals. eLife. 8.e399946.
Kelley, Darcy B., Taffeta M. Elliott, Ben J. Evans, Ian C. Hall, Elizabeth C. Leininger, Heather J. Rhodes, Ayako A. Yamaguchi, Erik Zornik. (2017) Probing forebrain to hindbrain circuit functions in Xenopus. Genesis The Journal of Genetics and Development. 55(1-2).
Hall, Ian C., Sarah M. N. Woolley, Ursula Kwong-Brown, Darcy B. Kelley (2016) Sex differences and endocrine regulation of auditory-evoked, neural responses in African Clawed Frogs (Xenopus). Journal of Comparative Physiology A. 202(1) 17-34.
Hall, Ian C., Irene H. Ballagh, Darcy B. Kelley (2013) The Xenopus amygdala mediates socially appropriate vocal communication signals. The Journal of Neuroscience. 33(36) 14534-14548.
Hall, Ian C., Gabrielle L. Sell, Emily M. Chester, Laura M. Hurley (2012) Stress-evoked increases in serotonin in the auditory midbrain do not directly result from elevations in serum corticosterone. Behavioral Brain Research. 226(1):41-49.
Hurley, Laura M. and Ian C. Hall (2011) Context-dependent modulation of auditory processing in midbrain. Hearing Research. 279(1-2): 74-84.
Hall, Ian C., Gabrielle L. Sell, Laura M. Hurley (2011) Social regulation of serotonin in the auditory midbrain. Behavioral Neuroscience. 125(4): 501-511.
Hall, Ian C., George V. Rebec, Laura M. Hurley (2010) Serotonin in the inferior colliculus changes with behavioral state and environmental stimuli. The Journal of Experimental Biology. 213: 1009-1017.
Hall, Ian C. and Laura M. Hurley. (2007) The serotonin releaser fenfluramine alters the auditory responses of inferior colliculus neurons. Hearing Research. 228(1-2): 82-94.