Behind the Brain

The journey from studying embryonic heart development to modeling complex brain circuits might seem like a leap, but for Karla Montejo, it represents a natural evolution of curiosity about the fundamental systems that govern life. Through our conversation, I learned how early exposure to research, combined with a fascination for mathematical modeling, can lead to groundbreaking work in understanding consciousness and neuropsychiatric disorders.

Early Foundations

Montejo’s path began unusually early, thanks to a forward-thinking high school program. “My high school opened up a program with Florida International University in developmental biology,” she explained. “We were studying the nervous system and heart development during embryonic research.” This early exposure to real scientific work planted seeds that would continue to grow throughout her college years.

When she continued this research in college, a graduate student took over the project, but the foundation had been laid. The experience of working with developmental systems, observing how complex structures emerge from simple beginnings, would prove an incredible basis for later understanding how brain circuits develop and function.

The Medical School Detour

Like many biology students, she initially considered medicine as a career path. However, reality quickly intervened. “Being in a morgue and seeing human bodies was terrifying,” she admitted. “Research seemed better, so I switched into engineering to avoid swamp biology and other courses I wasn’t interested in.”

This pivot away from traditional biology turned out to be a wise decision. In engineering, she discovered courses in transport phenomena and modeling and simulation that captivated her interest. “I really liked working with dynamical systems and differential equations,” she noted. These mathematical tools would become the foundation of her later neuroscience work.

The MIT Experience

The turning point came during her junior year with a visit to MIT. “I really liked neuroscience because there were too many questions and too few people working on them,” she observed. This scarcity of researchers relative to the vastness of unanswered questions represented an opportunity to make meaningful contributions to the field.

Taking an internship in neuroscience during her senior year proved transformative. Not only did she get hands-on experience with brain research, but she also learned coding skills that would become essential for computational neuroscience work.

Modeling Brain Circuits

Her research focus centers on thalamocortical circuits, the intricate networks connecting the thalamus and cortex. “The thalamus handles sensory input with many electrical cells, while the cortex does the processing,” she explained. “When this interplay goes wrong, you get conditions like Parkinson’s disease.”

The thalamus serves a crucial gating and control function in the brain. “It keeps the lights on,” she said, using a vivid metaphor to describe its role in maintaining consciousness and awareness. Many neurological and psychiatric disorders involve dysfunction in this critical brain region.

Her work has taken her to prestigious institutions, including the Mayo Clinic, where she focused on Parkinson’s disease, and MIT, where she studied general anesthesia and consciousness. Each setting provided different perspectives on how thalamocortical circuits contribute to both normal brain function and disease states.

The Art of Brain Modeling

The goal of computational modeling in neuroscience extends beyond simply recreating brain activity. “EEG electrodes mainly pick up cortical activity, so most of our modeling time is spent on cortical networks,” Montejo explains. However, she wishes she could dedicate more time to thalamocortical modeling, particularly as it relates to neuropsychiatric systems.

Her approach is influenced by the pioneering work of Yuri Buzsáki, who conceptualized the brain as operating on timing-based information processing. “The brain works like a Fourier Transform,” she notes, referring to the mathematical technique that breaks down complex signals into their component frequencies. This perspective helps explain how neural oscillations and rhythms contribute to everything from memory formation to consciousness itself.

Montejo’s interest lies particularly in “bottom-up behavioral modeling,” focusing on low-level questions about how individual neural components give rise to complex behaviors and cognitive functions.

Teaching to Empower

While her research keeps her busy, Montejo is passionate about education and mentoring. She actively works to empower young students through research programs like RISE, participates in modeling and simulation club meetings, and serves as a teaching assistant for undergraduate classes.

One of her most impactful roles involves teaching high school teachers how to create laboratory experiences for their students. Her advice for educators reflects her deep understanding of how learning works: “Draw pictures for breaking down topics and use relationships and analogies,” she recommends.

This emphasis on visual learning and connections mirrors how she approaches her own research, finding patterns and relationships between different levels of brain function.

The Wisdom of Scientific Experience

Montejo’s perspective on science has evolved significantly throughout her career. “When you’re young, you don’t know what you don’t know,” she observes. This humility has grown as she’s gained experience reviewing and writing scientific papers.

“When you start writing and reviewing papers, you realize how much science is unreproducible,” she notes. “As you get older, you learn how to interpret results more critically.” This maturation in scientific thinking is crucial for advancing the field and ensuring that research builds on solid foundations.

The Century’s Greatest Challenge

When asked about the biggest unsolved problems in neuroscience, Montejo doesn’t hesitate: “The problem of the century for neuroscience is how to bridge the brain and the mind.” This fundamental question drives much of her work and represents the ultimate goal of computational neuroscience.

Her research provides concrete examples of this brain-mind connection. She describes studying neural traces from animals with different stress histories: “You can see a big difference in the electrophysiology of neurons from animals that experienced high levels of stress compared to those that grew up calm.” These findings demonstrate how life experiences literally reshape the brain’s electrical patterns, providing a direct link between psychological states and neural function.

Looking Forward: The Future of Computational Neuroscience

As computational power continues to grow and our understanding of brain circuits deepens, researchers like Montejo are positioned to make breakthrough discoveries about consciousness, mental illness, and cognitive function. Her interdisciplinary background, combining biology, engineering, and neuroscience, represents the kind of broad expertise needed to tackle the brain’s complexity.

The questions she’s pursuing about thalamocortical circuits, consciousness, and the neural basis of behavior are fundamental to understanding what makes us human. Through her modeling work, teaching, and mentoring, she’s not just advancing scientific knowledge but also preparing the next generation of researchers to continue pushing the boundaries of what we know about the brain and mind.

This interview highlights how computational approaches are revolutionizing neuroscience and the importance of interdisciplinary thinking in tackling the brain’s greatest mysteries.