Michale Fee
Encyclopedia
Michale Sean Fee is a neuroscientist who works on the neural mechanisms of sequence generation and learning. Michale Fee is faculty in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and an Investigator in the McGovern Institute for Brain Research
. His laboratory studies how songbirds generate and learn complex vocal sequences.
with honors in Engineering Physics from the School of Engineering at the University of Michigan
(1985). He received a Ph.D.
in Applied Physics from Stanford University (1992), where he conducted his thesis work in the laboratory of Steven Chu
. From September 1992–June 1996 he was a postdoctoral fellow at Bell Laboratories in the Biological Computation Research Department, where he worked in the laboratory of David Kleinfeld on the cortical circuitry in the vibrissa system of the rat underlying the sense of touch.
In 1996 Michale Fee joined the Biological Computation Research Department at Bell Labs as a permanent researcher (Member of Technical Staff), at which time he began working on the mechanisms of vocal sequence generation in the songbird. In 2003, he joined the faculty of the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT as Associate Professor of Neuroscience with tenure. At the same time he was appointed as an investigator in the McGovern Institute for Brain Research
. He has delivered lectures in numerous international conferences and research departments. He was promoted to Full Professor at MIT in 2010.
as a model system. Zebra finches, like other songbirds, learn their songs from their father and are commonly used to study the neural mechanisms of motor learning. He and his colleagues discovered that the timing of song is encoded in the zebra finch using a very sparse code, with neurons in the high vocal center of the avian cortex generally firing action potentials only once per song. He and his colleagues also found that a brain circuit necessary for song learning also generates the variability in juvenile song. In particular, this circuit is required for the early unstructured vocalizations that resemble babbling
in humans.
McGovern Institute for Brain Research
The McGovern Institute for Brain Research is a research institute within MIT. Its mission is to understand how the brain works and to discover new ways to prevent or treat brain disorders...
. His laboratory studies how songbirds generate and learn complex vocal sequences.
Biography
Michale Fee received a yo B.E.Bachelor's degree
A bachelor's degree is usually an academic degree awarded for an undergraduate course or major that generally lasts for three or four years, but can range anywhere from two to six years depending on the region of the world...
with honors in Engineering Physics from the School of Engineering at the University of Michigan
University of Michigan
The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...
(1985). He received a Ph.D.
Doctor of Philosophy
Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated as Ph.D., PhD, D.Phil., or DPhil , in English-speaking countries, is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities...
in Applied Physics from Stanford University (1992), where he conducted his thesis work in the laboratory of Steven Chu
Steven Chu
Steven Chu is an American physicist and the 12th United States Secretary of Energy. Chu is known for his research at Bell Labs in cooling and trapping of atoms with laser light, which won him the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1997, along with his scientific colleagues Claude Cohen-Tannoudji and...
. From September 1992–June 1996 he was a postdoctoral fellow at Bell Laboratories in the Biological Computation Research Department, where he worked in the laboratory of David Kleinfeld on the cortical circuitry in the vibrissa system of the rat underlying the sense of touch.
In 1996 Michale Fee joined the Biological Computation Research Department at Bell Labs as a permanent researcher (Member of Technical Staff), at which time he began working on the mechanisms of vocal sequence generation in the songbird. In 2003, he joined the faculty of the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT as Associate Professor of Neuroscience with tenure. At the same time he was appointed as an investigator in the McGovern Institute for Brain Research
McGovern Institute for Brain Research
The McGovern Institute for Brain Research is a research institute within MIT. Its mission is to understand how the brain works and to discover new ways to prevent or treat brain disorders...
. He has delivered lectures in numerous international conferences and research departments. He was promoted to Full Professor at MIT in 2010.
Research
Michale Fee's research aims to understand how neural circuits in the brain subserve the generation and learning or complex motor sequences. His lab primarily uses the zebra finchZebra Finch
The Zebra Finch, Taeniopygia guttata, is the most common and familiar estrildid finch of Central Australia and ranges over most of the continent, avoiding only the cool moist south and the tropical far north. It also can be found natively in Indonesia and East Timor...
as a model system. Zebra finches, like other songbirds, learn their songs from their father and are commonly used to study the neural mechanisms of motor learning. He and his colleagues discovered that the timing of song is encoded in the zebra finch using a very sparse code, with neurons in the high vocal center of the avian cortex generally firing action potentials only once per song. He and his colleagues also found that a brain circuit necessary for song learning also generates the variability in juvenile song. In particular, this circuit is required for the early unstructured vocalizations that resemble babbling
Babbling
Babbling is a stage in child development and a state in language acquisition, during which an infant appears to be experimenting with uttering sounds of language, but not yet producing any recognizable words...
in humans.