Dr. Thompson received his B.S. in psychology and biology from Furman University in 1989 and his Ph.D. in Biopsychology from Cornell University in 1996. He then completed a three year postdoctoral fellowship in the Zoology department at Oregon State University. Dr. Thompson's research focuses on how the brain processes social stimuli and on how it uses that information to organize behavioral output, especially emotional interactions between individuals. In particular, he is interested in the effects of sex steroids on brain structures that process social signals and that organize sexual and aggressive behaviors and in the role that neuropeptide brain circuits play in the modulation of social behavior. He uses many different tools to answer these questions, including behavioral, neuroanatomical and molecular techniques.