A close up image of a brown mouse standing in a cage on woodchip bedding and brown paper crinkles. He stands next to a green chew bone, looking up at the camera.
Lauren is a white woman with red/brown hair, brown eyes, and freckles. She smiles up at the camera from a grassy sitting area, wearing a pink shirt.

Lauren R. Leuner

Hi! I’m a PhD Candidate in the Hurley Lab at Indiana University studying how contextual factors influence courtship communication in house mice. I am primarily interested in how experiences with both social and physical environmental enrichment can influence how male mice interact with female partners, and how these factors may affect how they produce and respond to vocal signals.

Context is crucial for individuals to process and respond appropriately to social signals. Across my dissertation, I evaluate the role of contextual factors on multiple spectrums: internal vs external, physical vs social, and acute vs long term.

My current projects revolve around assessing how experience with physical and/or social environmental enrichment may alter sociability, social communication, and courtship behavior in male mice.

Research