By both training and temperament, I consider myself a neuroethologist - I want to understand how nervous systems produce behavior. Since, by definition, causal explanations for the properties of a system at one level must be in terms of the level(s) immediately below, I work at multiple levels. I try to explain animal behavior in terms of the properties of systems of neurons, explain these system properties in terms of connectivity and cellular properties, etc. Reductionism is a powerful tool, but because good science must be integrative, I use modeling to ‘close the loop’ between the lower-level explanations and the original behavior. Since nervous systems are the products of evolution, I consider ultimate causes as well as proximate ones. This means, wherever possible, I bring a comparative approach to my work, both by examining how different taxa have solved similar problems, and how similar cellular substrates have been used to implement different behaviors in different organisms. A recent addition to the possibilities of comparative work comes from the field of computational neuroethology; it is now possible to test some hypotheses using artificial organisms, which can be robots or computer simulations. Systems I have experience with include the neurohormonal control of behavior in leeches, reflex plasticity in insects, the orientation of animals to odor plumes, the central generation of rhythmic behaviors, neuromodulation of muscles in arthropods, mechanisms of legged locomotion, and robot simulations of behavior.

Dr. Belanger's Home Page: http://community.wvu.edu/~jhb023/BelangerHome.html