PhD University of Minnesota (2012)

RESEARCH INTERESTS

The evolution of animal communication systems. In particular, how do communication signals evolve, how are these signals used to make behavioral adaptive decisions, what are the neural mechanisms that underlie signal processing, how plastic are these signal-processing mechanisms, and how do signal-processing mechanisms evolve.

RESEARCH STATEMENT

My research program seeks to understand patterns of brain evolution and how they relate to diversification of perception, behavior, and species. In my lab, we integrate ecological, behavioral, physiological, and anatomical studies, under a comparative framework, to investigate the mechanisms, function, and evolution of animal communication signals and signal-processing mechanisms. Current projects in the lab use frogs as a study system to understand (i) how human-generated noise may be affecting acoustic communication signals and hearing abilities, (ii) how infection by a fungal parasite affects communication and mating behavior, and (iii) how variation in communication signals and auditory processing may be related to the formation of new species. In addition to my work on North American frogs, I have studied communication and sensory perception in songbirds, electric fishes, and tropical poison dart frogs.

2020 Presidential Award for Professional Development of Probationary Faculty, San Francisco State University

2013 Honorable Mention, Best Dissertation Award in Biology and Medicine, University of Minnesota

2013 Honorable Mention, Outstanding Performance Award for Teaching Assistants, University of Minnesota

2010 Dayton-Wilkie Fellowship, Bell Museum of Natural History, University of Minnesota (US$1000)

2008 Florence Rothman Fellowship, University of Minnesota (US$1500)

2022-2027

CAREER Award – National Science Foundation

Towards a complete picture of communication in anthropogenic noise – Auditory processing among urban and rural soundscapes.

Role: Principal Investigator

Total Direct Costs: $529,462

2021
New Investigator Grant – CSUPERB

Hearing in the Cacophony: Assessing Evolutionary Responses to Urban Noise.

Role: Principal Investigator

Total Direct Costs: $15,000

Vélez A, & Guajardo AS. 2020. Individual variation in two types of advertisement calls of Pacific tree frogs, Hyliola (=Pseudacris) regilla, and the implications for sexual selection and species recognition. Bioacoustics, DOI:  10.1080/09524622.2020.1803133.

Vélez A, Ryoo DY, & Carlson BA. 2018. Sensory specializations of mormyrid fishes are associated with species differences in electric signal localization behavior. Brain, Behavior, and Evolution, 92: 125-141.

Vélez A, Kohashi T, Lu A, & Carlson BA. 2017. The cellular and circuit basis for evolutionary change in sensory perception in mormyrid fishes. Scientific Reports, 7: 3783.

Vélez A, Gordon N, & Bee MA. 2017. The signal in noise: acoustic Information for soundscape orientation in two North American treefrogs. Behavioral Ecology, 28: 844-853.

Vélez A, & Carlson BA. 2016. Detection of transient synchrony across oscillating receptors by the central electrosensory system of mormyrid fish. eLife, 5: e16851.

Vélez A, Gall MD, & Lucas JF. 2015. Seasonal plasticity in auditory processing of the amplitude envelope and temporal fine structure of sounds in three songbirds. Animal Behaviour, 103: 53-63.

Vélez A, Gall MD, Fu J, & Lucas JF. 2015. Song structure, not high-frequency song content, determines high-frequency auditory sensitivity in nine species of New World sparrows (Passeriformes: Emberizidae). Functional Ecology, 29: 487-497.

Vélez A, & Bee MA. 2013. Signal recognition by green treefrogs (H. cinerea) and Cope’s gray treefrogs (Hyla chrysoscelis) in naturally fluctuating noise. Journal of Comparative Psychology, 127: 166-178.

Vélez A, Höbel G, Gordon N, & Bee MA. 2012. Dip listening or modulation masking? Signal recognition in the presence of fluctuating background noise in green treefrogs. Journal of Comparative Physiology, A, 198: 891-904.

Vélez A, Hödl W, & Amézquita A. 2012. Sound or silence: Call recognition in the temporal domain by the frog Allobates femoralis. Ethology, 118, 377-386.

Vélez A & Bee MA. 2011. Dip listening and the cocktail party problem in grey treefrogs: Signal recognition in temporally fluctuating noise. Animal Behaviour, 82, 1319-1327.

Vélez A & Bee MA. 2010. Signal recognition by frogs in the presence of temporally fluctuating chorus-shaped noise. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 64, 1695-1709.