Dr. Björn Ch. Ludwarphoto of Bjoern

Asst. Professor of Neuroscience
Dept. of Neurosciences
Mount Sinai School of Medicine
Box 1065
One Gustave L. Levy Place
New York, NY 10029
phone: 212-241-5901
email

As a biologist specializing in neurophysiology, I am interested in how a nervous system produces behavior. Specifically, what information do sensory organs gather, how is this information transmitted to the central nervous system, how do central neural circuits integrate and process signals, and how are muscles controlled?

My current interests focus on how sensory cells regulate information. Signals from the environment are not just unconditionally passed on to the central nervous system. A variety of mechanisms selects appropriate information and blocks out unimportant information to reduce the brain's workload. I study these mechanisms in invertebrate model systems using classic electrophysiology, the direct recording of the neuron's electrical activity, and optical techniques that allow visualizing specific aspects of nerve cell activity. In particular calcium imaging has proven extremely useful in uncovering the mechanisms of sensory signal regulation.