Christa Baker
Bio
I am a neuroscientist interested in the structure, function, and evolution of sensory and motor circuits. My research combines in vivo physiology, behavior, computational modeling, and comparative approaches to reveal basic principles of neural coding. As a postdoc with Mala Murthy at Princeton University, I am investigating auditory processing and genetic specification of courtship songs in fruit flies. During my PhD with Bruce Carlson at Washington University in St. Louis, I studied peripheral and central mechanisms of sensory processing in a pathway responsible for communication signal detection in weakly electric fishes.
Research in the Baker Lab is focused on how brain circuits enable animals to understand acoustic communication signals. We study this problem in fruit flies due to their small brains, complex communication signals, and experimental tractability. Our work combines animal behavior, neural recordings, connectomics, computational modeling, and genetic tool building to reveal the mechanisms underlying hearing, and how evolution shapes these mechanisms.
Publications
- Inferring neural dynamics of memory during naturalistic social communication , (2024)
- The role of fruitless in specifying courtship behaviors across divergent Drosophila species , Science Advances (2024)
- The role offruitlessin specifying courtship behaviors differs acrossDrosophilaspecies , (2023)
- Neural Network Organization for Courtship Song Feature Detection inDrosophila , (2020)
- Behavioral and Single-Neuron Sensitivity to Millisecond Variations in Temporally Patterned Communication Signals , The Journal of Neuroscience (2016)
- Peripheral sensory coding through oscillatory synchrony in weakly electric fish , eLife (2015)
- Short-term depression, temporal summation, and onset inhibition shape interval tuning in midbrain neurons , Journal of Neuroscience (2014)
- Multiplexed temporal coding of electric communication signals in mormyrid fishes , Journal of Experimental Biology (2013)
- Bilateral effects of unilateral cochlear implantation in congenitally deaf cats , Journal of Comparative Neurology (2010)
- Erratum: Bilateral effects of unilateral cochlear implantation in congenitally deaf cats (The Journal of Comparative Neurology (2010) 518 (2382-2404)) , Journal of Comparative Neurology (2010)