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Welcome to the Banerjee Lab at CSHL

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Research

Circuits of interacting neurons enable us to sense and respond to stimuli, combine them with past experiences, and move our muscles to interact with the world. By mapping, manipulating and measuring activity of various circuit elements, we wish to understand how neural circuits compute, and guide behavior. 

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Research in the lab combines cutting-edge neural circuit analysis of a natural behavior with comparative evolutionary analyses across species to gain insight into the function and evolution of neural circuits for vocal communication. 

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We use the rich vocal behavior of the Alston's singing mice to pursue two complementary questions. How does the auditory system interact with the motor system to generate the fast sensorimotor loop required for vocal communication? What are the neural circuit modifications that allow behavioral novelty to emerge during evolution? ​

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Selected Publications

Temporal scaling of motor cortical dynamics reveals hierarchical control of vocal production

Neocortical activity is thought to mediate voluntary control over vocal production, but the underlying neural mechanisms remain unclear. In a highly vocal rodent, the Alston’s singing mouse, we investigate neural dynamics in the orofacial motor cortex (OMC), a structure critical for vocal behavior. 

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