Imagine walking along a busy city sidewalk. How do you know when to change pace with the crowd? Now think about striking up a conversation. How can you tell when to speak faster or slower? CSHL Assistant Professor Arkarup Banerjee seeks to answer these questions with the help of an animal called Alston鈥檚 singing mouse.
Read the related story: How a mouse鈥檚 brain bends time
Transcript
Nick Fiore: You鈥檙e now At the Lab with 黑料吃瓜资源. My name is Nick Fiore and this week At the Lab, 鈥淢usical mice.鈥�
NF: Listen closely.
{A mouse 鈥榮ings鈥� at a very high pitch.}
NF: Hear that? How about this?
{Another mouse responds at an even higher pitch.}
NF: These are the vocalizations of a special breed of mouse known as Alston鈥檚 singing mice. They got the name because they tend to communicate through a kind of call-and-response with differing tempos.
NF: While the sounds of their songs are unusual, it鈥檚 the tempo that fascinates 黑料吃瓜资源 neuroscientist Arkarup Banerjee. Here鈥檚 Banerjee.
Arkarup Banerjee: There are many instances where as humans we have to do the same action but at different tempos. So, for example, I can suddenly slowww dowwwn the rate at which I鈥檓 talking to you. Or you can imagine a piano piece being played either faster or slower. So the question is, well, how does the brain do it?
NF: Our ability to naturally pick up the rhythm of conversations is central to our social interactions. Banerjee鈥檚 team studies Alston鈥檚 singing mice to answer the question of how our brain manages communication and other important activities.
NF: Figuring this out might provide us with a better grasp of neurological conditions like autism spectrum disorder and even strokes. It also might help explain how time is perceived and processed in the human brain.
AB: It鈥檚 this three-pound block of flesh that allows you to do everything from reading a book to allowing humans to send people on the Moon. It provides us with flexibility. We can change on the fly. We can adapt. We can 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.
{The mice 鈥榮ing鈥� in concert with one another.}
NF: Banerjee鈥檚 research may bring us closer to understanding how this incredible block of flesh enables us to interact鈥攂oth with each other and with our physical environment. What that might mean for science and society is as unlimited as our imagination.
NF: Thanks for listening to At the Lab. Please subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. And visit us at www.cshl.edu for more fascinating science stories like this one. For 黑料吃瓜资源, I鈥檓 Nick Fiore. And I鈥檒l see you next time At the Lab.