黑料吃瓜资源

Life has a challenging tempo. Sometimes, it moves faster or slower than we鈥檇 like. Nevertheless, we adapt. We pick up the rhythm of conversations. We keep pace with the crowd walking a city sidewalk. 黑料吃瓜资源 Assistant Professor Arkarup Banerjee explains:

鈥淭here are many instances where we have to do the same action but at different tempos. So the question is, how does the brain do it.鈥�

Now, Banerjee and collaborators have uncovered a new clue that suggests the brain bends our processing of time to suit our needs. And it鈥檚 partly thanks to a noisy critter from Costa Rica named Alston鈥檚 singing mouse.

This special breed is known for its human-audible vocalizations, which last several seconds. One mouse will sing out a longing cry, and another will respond with a tune of its own. Notably, the song varies in length and speed. Banerjee and his team looked to determine how neural circuits in the mice鈥檚 brains govern their song鈥檚 tempo.

Hear the “music” of Alston’s singing mice and find out how it鈥檚 helping CSHL scientists understand the parts of the brain that control speech.

The researchers pretended to engage in duets with the mice while analyzing a region of their brains called the orofacial motor cortex (OMC). They recorded neurons鈥� activity over many weeks. They then looked for differences among songs with distinct durations and tempos.

They found that OMC neurons engage in a process called temporal scaling. 鈥淚nstead of encoding absolute time like a clock, the neurons track something like relative time,鈥� Banerjee explains. 鈥淭hey actually slow down or speed up the interval. So, it鈥檚 not like one or two seconds, but 10%, 20%.鈥�

The discovery offers new insight into how the brain generates vocal communication. But Banerjee suspects its implications go beyond language or music. It might help explain how time is computed in other parts of the brain, allowing us to adjust various behaviors accordingly. And that might tell us more about how our beautifully complex brains work. Banerjee says:

鈥淚t鈥檚 this three-pound block of flesh that allows you to do everything from reading a book to sending people to the moon. It provides us with flexibility. We can change on the fly. We adapt. We learn. If everything was a stimulus-response, with no opportunity for learning, nothing that changes, no long-term goals, we wouldn鈥檛 need a brain. We believe the cortex exists to add flexibility to behavior.鈥�

In other words, it helps make us who we are. Banerjee鈥檚 discovery may bring science closer to understanding how our brains enable us to interact with the world. The possible implications for technology, education, and therapy are as unlimited as our imagination.

Written by: Luis Sandoval, Communications Specialist | [email protected] | 516-367-6826

Funding

National Institutes of Health, Simons Collaboration on the Global Brain, Searle Scholars Program, Klingenstein Philanthropies, Simons Foundation

Citation

Banerjee, A., et al., 鈥淭emporal scaling of motor cortical dynamics reveals hierarchical control of vocal production鈥�, Nature Neuroscience, January 30, 2024. DOI: