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Alexei Koulakov

Alexei Koulakov

Professor
Charles Robertson Professor of Neuroscience

Ph.D., University of Minnesota, 1998

koulakov@cshl.edu | 516-367-8470

Faculty Profile

The complexity of the mammalian brain challenges our ability to explain it. My group applies methods from mathematics and theoretical physics to understand the brain. We are generating novel ideas about neural computation and brain development, including how neurons process information, how brain networks assemble during development, and how brain architecture evolved to facilitate its function.

Alexei Koulakov and colleagues are trying to determine the mathematical rules by which the brain assembles itself, with particular focus on the formation of sensory circuits such as those involved in visual perception and olfaction. The visual system of the mouse was chosen for study in part because its components, in neuroanatomical terms, are well understood. What is not known is how projections are generated that lead from the eye through the thalamus and into the visual cortex, how an individual’s experience influences the configuration of the network, and what parameters for the process are set by genetic factors. Even less is known about the assembly of the neural net within the mouse olfactory system, which, in the end, enables the individual to distinguish one smell from another with astonishing specificity and to remember such distinctions over time. These are among the challenges that engage Koulakov and his team.

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Selected Publications

Neural Networks With Motivation.

11 Jan 2021 | Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience | 14:609316
Shuvaev, Sergey, Tran, Ngoc, Stephenson-Jones, Marcus, Li, Bo, Koulakov, Alexei

Mosaic representations of odors in the input and output layers of the mouse olfactory bulb

Aug 2019 | Nature Neuroscience | 22(8):1306-1317.
Chae, H, Kepple, D, Bast, W, Murthy, V, Koulakov, A, Albeanu, D

Network cloning using DNA barcodes

24 Apr 2019 | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of USA | 116(19):9610-9615
Shuvaev, S, Baserdem, B, Zador, A, Koulakov, A

Deconstructing Odorant Identity via Primacy in Dual Networks

14 Feb 2019 | Neural Computation | 31(4):710-737
Kepple, D, Giaffar, H, Rinberg, D, Koulakov, A

DeepNose: Using artificial neural networks to represent the space of odorants

Jun 2019 | Proceedings of the 36th International Conference on Machine Learning | 97:6305-6314
Tran, Ngoc, Kepple, Daniel, Shuvaev, Sergey, Koulakov, Alexei

All Publications

Catalyzing next-generation Artificial Intelligence through NeuroAI.

22 Mar 2023 | Nature Communications | 14(1):1597
Zador, Anthony, Escola, Sean, Richards, Blake, Ölveczky, Bence, Bengio, Yoshua, Boahen, Kwabena, Botvinick, Matthew, Chklovskii, Dmitri, Churchland, Anne, Clopath, Claudia, DiCarlo, James, Ganguli, Surya, Hawkins, Jeff, Körding, Konrad, Koulakov, Alexei, LeCun, Yann, Lillicrap, Timothy, Marblestone, Adam, Olshausen, Bruno, Pouget, Alexandre, Savin, Cristina, Sejnowski, Terrence, Simoncelli, Eero, Solla, Sara, Sussillo, David, Tolias, Andreas, Tsao, Doris

High-throughput sequencing of single neuron projections reveals spatial organization in the olfactory cortex

27 Oct 2022 | Cell | 185(22):4117-4134.e28
Chen, Yushu, Chen, Xiaoyin, Baserdem, Batuhan, Zhan, Huiqing, Li, Yan, Davis, Martin, Kebschull, Justus, Zador, Anthony, Koulakov, Alexei, Albeanu, Dinu

Spatiotemporal 3D image registration for mesoscale studies of brain development

7 Mar 2022 | Scientific Reports | 12(1):3648
Shuvaev, Sergey, Lazutkin, Alexander, Kiryanov, Roman, Anokhin, Konstantin, Enikolopov, Grigori, Koulakov, Alexei

Neural networks with motivation

22 Jun 2019
Shuvaev, Sergey, Tran, Ngoc, Stephenson-Jones, Marcus, Li, Bo, Koulakov, Alexei

Neural stem cell spacing questions their self-renewal

9 Aug 2018 | Aging | 10(8):1793-1794
Mineyeva, O, Koulakov, A, Enikolopov, G

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