Description of Research Expertise

My broad goal has been to learn how the brain is designed – its functional architecture. My research spanned the full range of scales, from nanoscopic (synaptic vesicles), to microscopic (neural circuits), to macroscopic (regional neuroanatomy and behavior). My lab studies focused on retinal structure and function (Sterling, 2013), but my theoretical interests extended to basic issues of physiological regulation and behavior, leading to the concept of allostasis (Sterling, 2004, 2011). The two lines were integrated in a book written with Prof. Simon Laughlin, Principles of Neural Design (2015) and another, What is Health? Allostasis and the Evolution of Human Design (2020). Investigations continue in a Massachusetts garden and on a farm in western Panamá.