Professor Stefan Everling’s research centers on the neural mechanisms that support cognition, social communication, and executive control in primates. His work aims to understand how distributed frontal and cingulate networks—particularly those within the medial prefrontal cortex and anterior cingulate cortex (area 32)—enable flexible behavior, vocal communication, and context-dependent decision-making.

A major focus of his program is the use of common marmosets as a translational model for dissecting primate brain circuits with high spatial and temporal precision. His laboratory combines Neuropixels electrophysiology, two-photon calcium imaging, ultra-high-field functional MRI, and chemogenetic manipulation to examine how neural populations encode sensory information, motor intentions, social signals, and internally generated vocalizations. This multimodal approach allows for detailed characterization of both single-neuron and large-scale network dynamics during naturalistic behaviors.

Professor Everling is particularly interested in the neural basis of primate vocal communication—how auditory and premotor circuits interact to generate and perceive species-typical calls, and how these processes are modulated by social context. His work also investigates executive and oculomotor control, the dynamics of fronto-parietal networks, and the role of functional connectivity in shaping behavior across species.

More broadly, his research contributes to comparative and translational neuroscience by developing advanced primate neuroscience methods and establishing mechanistic links between neural circuits, behavior, and the pathophysiology of neuropsychiatric disorders.