Michale Sean Fee (born November 6, 1964, Pasadena CA) is an American neuroscientist who works on the neural mechanisms of sequence generation and learning. Michale Fee is faculty in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and an Investigator in the
McGovern Institute for Brain Research
The McGovern Institute for Brain Research is a research institute within MIT. Its mission is to understand how the brain works and to discover new ways to prevent or treat brain disorders. The institute was founded in 2000 by Patrick McGover ...
. His laboratory studies how songbirds generate and learn complex vocal sequences.
Biography
Michale Fee received a
B.E.
A Bachelor of Engineering (BEng) or a Bachelor of Science in Engineering (BSE) is an academic undergraduate degree awarded to a student after three to five years of studying engineering at an accredited college or university.
In the UK, a Bache ...
with honors in Engineering Physics from the School of Engineering at the
University of Michigan
, mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth"
, former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821)
, budget = $10.3 billion (2021)
, endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...
(1985). He received a
Ph.D.
A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...
in Applied Physics from
Stanford University
Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...
(1992), where he conducted his thesis work in the laboratory of
Steven Chu
Steven Chu From September 1992–June 1996 he was a
postdoctoral fellow
A postdoctoral fellow, postdoctoral researcher, or simply postdoc, is a person professionally conducting research after the completion of their doctoral studies (typically a PhD). The ultimate goal of a postdoctoral research position is to p ...
at
Bell Laboratories
Nokia Bell Labs, originally named Bell Telephone Laboratories (1925–1984),
then AT&T Bell Laboratories (1984–1996)
and Bell Labs Innovations (1996–2007),
is an American industrial research and scientific development company owned by mult ...
in the Biological Computation Research Department, where he worked in the laboratory of David Kleinfeld on the cortical circuitry in the vibrissa system of the rat underlying the sense of touch.
In 1996 Michale Fee joined the Biological Computation Research Department at Bell Labs as a permanent researcher (Member of Technical Staff), at which time he began working on the mechanisms of vocal sequence generation in the songbird. In 2003, he joined the faculty of the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at
MIT
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the m ...
as Associate Professor of Neuroscience with tenure. At the same time he was appointed as an investigator in the
McGovern Institute for Brain Research
The McGovern Institute for Brain Research is a research institute within MIT. Its mission is to understand how the brain works and to discover new ways to prevent or treat brain disorders. The institute was founded in 2000 by Patrick McGover ...
. He has delivered lectures in numerous international conferences and research departments. He was promoted to Full Professor at MIT in 2010.
Research
Michale Fee's research aims to understand how neural circuits in the brain subserve the generation and learning or complex motor sequences. His lab primarily uses the
zebra finch
The zebra finches are two species of estrildid finch in the genus ''Taeniopygia'' found in Australia and Indonesia. They are seed-eaters that travel in large flocks.
The species are:
Previously, both species were classified as a single specie ...
as a model system. Zebra finches, like other songbirds, learn their songs from their father and are commonly used to study the neural mechanisms of motor learning. He and his colleagues discovered that the timing of song is encoded in the zebra finch using a very
sparse code
Neural coding (or Neural representation) is a neuroscience field concerned with characterising the hypothetical relationship between the stimulus and the individual or ensemble neuronal responses and the relationship among the electrical activity o ...
, with neurons in the high vocal center of the avian cortex generally firing
action potentials
An action potential occurs when the membrane potential of a specific cell location rapidly rises and falls. This depolarization then causes adjacent locations to similarly depolarize. Action potentials occur in several types of animal cells ...
only once per song. He and his colleagues also found that a brain circuit necessary for song learning also generates the variability in juvenile song. In particular, this circuit is required for the early unstructured vocalizations that resemble
babbling
Babbling is a stage in child development and a state in language acquisition during which an infant appears to be experimenting with uttering articulate sounds, but does not yet produce any recognizable words. Babbling begins shortly after birth ...