Randy Bruno Lab at Columbia University

About Us

The goal of the Bruno Lab's research is to define the underlying neural pathways and circuit elements that  contribute to sensory perception: how information from the outside world is relayed to the neocortex, and how subsequent processing among cortical layers and thalamic nuclei contribute to perception, learning, remembering, and reasoning.

Our experiments combine behavior with intracellular physiology, array recordings, two-photon microscopy, optogenetics, and computational modeling. We focus on the whisker-barrel system, which is one of the main means by which rodents explore their environments.

Recent Publication

Announcements

2022 Barrels Meeting

The 2022 Barrels satellite of the SfN meeting will be held November 10-11th in La Jolla, California.

Click here to view the full program.

Click here to register.

What makes humans smart?

Our collaboration with Ewoud Schmidt, Frank Polleux, the Hillman Lab, and the Miller Lab shows shows how a single gene isoform alters connectivity, activity, and learning. Now out in Nature!

Soon-to-be Prof. Chris Rodgers

Dr Chris Rodgers will be starting his own lab at Emory University in January 2022

Behavioral Strategies & Neural Coding in Shape Discrimination

Cortical representations of the world change dramatically depending on behavioral task. Our new study led by Chris Rodgers and in collaboration with Ramon Nogueira & Stefano Fusi is now online at Neuron.

Jacob Dahan wins 2021 Fulbright Scholarship

Congratulations to Jacob Dahan on winning a 2021 Fulbright Scholarship to work abroad! This comes on top of his Bridges & Sturtevant Prize, awarded by Columbia University to senior undergraduates who have performed outstanding research in Biology. Jacob won the 2021 prize for his work with Jung Park on the role of cortical connectivity in texture discrimination.

The 2020 Barrels Meeting

The Society for Neuroscience meeting may have been cancelled, but the 33rd Barrels Meeting will be held virtually on October 21-23, 2020! Click the title above for the flyer.

 

Soon-to-be Prof. Kate Hong

Congratulations to Kate Hong who will open her own lab at Carnegie Mellon University in January 2020!

High-order thalamic inputs to sensory cortex are stronger and longer lasting than cortical inputs

Our recent eLife paper demonstrates unique features of high-order thalamus: strong, long-lasting, and oscillatory input to cortex

Sensation, Movement & Learning Without Sensory Cortex

Performing and learning detection behaviors are possible without sensory cortex. Our new study led by Kate Hong is now online at Nature.

Jung Park wins NSF Fellowship

April 2018 - PhD student Jung Park just won a 3-year NSF Fellowship. Congratulations, Jung!

 

Soon-to-be Prof. Constantinople

Congratulations to Christine Constantinople, one of the first Bruno Lab PhD students, who will open her own lab at NYU/CNS in 2018!

Support

Support for our research has been provided by these sponsors.