 The discoveries of Dr. Jarvis and his collaborators include the first findings of natural behaviorally regulated gene expression in the brain, social context dependent gene regulation, convergent vocal learning systems across distantly related animal groups, the FOXP2 gene in vocal learning birds, and the finding that vocal learning systems may have evolved out of ancient motor learning systems.His cutting edge research identifies the neurological basis of birdsong at the tissue, cellular and genetic levels.A recent project seeks to transform birds without songs such a pigeons into birds that sing by genetic neuro-engineering, e.g.