The Larson Lab explores how living systems – from neuronal networks to organismal populations – organize themselves to survive, establish order, and adapt to perturbations like disease, aging, and environmental challenges. We work to understand not just how order emerges, but how it persists adaptively through cycles of sensing, reorganization, and regeneration across scales. We combine several approaches including behavioral genomics, comparative neuroanatomy, cellular and molecular biology, and electrophysiology with mechanistic studies to ask questions like: How do differing spatiotemporal patterns of adult neurogenesis arise within and across individuals, populations, and species? How does local tissue environment alter neural plasticity and organismal behavior?How do these patterns change with natural fluctuations and extreme perturbations to the environment? Can we exploit diversity in the mechanisms underlying neural plasticity to better understand resiliency of both individuals and populations and to mitigate the consequences of disease and human-driven environmental change?