Karunesh Ganguly, MD, PhD
Professor
Neurology
School of Medicine

Dr. Karunesh Ganguly is a neurologist who specializes in neurological rehabilitation, particularly for patients with gait or walking disorders. He also treats chronic neurological impairments following stroke or another brain injury.

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In his research, Ganguly studies new treatments for patients recovering from neurological conditions and injuries. He is specifically interested in developing brain-machine interfaces that have the potential to revolutionize the care of neurologically impaired patients by allowing electronic devices to interface directly with the brain. These devices could eventually allow paralyzed patients to recover limb function and help retrain the brain after injury. He has authored numerous peer-reviewed publications on this topic.

Ganguly earned his medical degree and a doctorate in neuroscience in the Medical Scientist Training Program at the University of California, San Diego. He completed his internal medicine and neurology training at UCSF.

Awards

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• Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), President, White House, 2013-2018
• Clinical Scientist Award, Doris Duke Foundation, 2012-2016
• Career Award in Medicine, Burroughs Wellcome Fund, 2011-2017
• Career Development Award, Veterans Health Association, 2009-2014
• Faculty Transitional Award, American Heart Association, 2008-2013

Education & Training

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• B.S. Chemistry Stanford
• Neural Engineering University of California Berkeley
• MD, PhD Neuroscience University of California San Diego
• Internal Medicine University of California San Francisco
• Neurology University of California San Francisco

Websites

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• Ganguly Lab Website (gangulylab.org)
• Clinical Profile at UCSF Medical Center (ucsfhealth.org)
• Posts on Bluesky (bsky.app)

Grants and Projects

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• Optimizing oscillatory epidural electrical stimulation to selectively increase task-related population dynamics in motor areas, NIH, 2020-2025
• Modulating Low-Frequency Cortical Population Dynamics to Augment Motor Function After Stroke, NIH, 2020-2025
• Neurophysiological Basis for Enhancing Motor Recovery After Stroke, NIH, 2015-2023
• Optimizing peripheral stimulation parameters to modulate the sensorimotor cortex for post-stroke motor recovery, NIH, 2016-2021
• Development of circuit-based therapies for motor recovery after stroke, NIH, 2015-2020
• Neuroprosthetic Control of an Anthropomorphic Exoskeleton in Tetraplegics, NIH, 2015-2020
• ShEEP request for an Inscopix nVoke Integrated Imaging and Optogenetics System, NIH, 2019

Publications (72)

Top publication keywords:
Brain-Computer InterfacesSleepStroke RehabilitationRats, Long-EvansLearningAction PotentialsStrokeMotor CortexNeural ProsthesesMemory ConsolidationCorpus StriatumRecovery of FunctionMovementMotor SkillsNeurons

• Cortical-hippocampal coupling during manifold exploration in motor cortex.
  Nature 2022 Kim J, Joshi A, Frank L, Ganguly K
• Compartmentalized dynamics within a common multi-area mesoscale manifold represent a repertoire of human hand movements.
  Neuron 2021 Natraj N, Silversmith DB, Chang EF, Ganguly K
• Low-frequency stimulation enhances ensemble co-firing and dexterity after stroke.
  Cell 2021 Khanna P, Totten D, Novik L, Roberts J, Morecraft RJ, Ganguly K
• Plug-and-play control of a brain-computer interface through neural map stabilization.
  Nature biotechnology 2020 Silversmith DB, Abiri R, Hardy NF, Natraj N, Tu-Chan A, Chang EF, Ganguly K
• Competing Roles of Slow Oscillations and Delta Waves in Memory Consolidation versus Forgetting.
  Cell 2019 Kim J, Gulati T, Ganguly K
• Emergent modular neural control drives coordinated motor actions.
  Nature neuroscience 2019 Lemke SM, Ramanathan DS, Guo L, Won SJ, Ganguly K

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• Ensemble reactivations during brief rest drive fast learning of sequences.
  Nature 2025 Griffin S, Khanna P, Choi H, Thiesen K, Novik L, Morecraft RJ, Ganguly K
• Disentanglement of preparatory and movement dynamics with motor recovery in primates.
  Brain Stimulation 2025 Karunesh Ganguly, Hoseok Choi, Jaekyung Kim, Preeya Khanna, Sandon Griffin, Robert Morecraft
• Kilohertz transcranial magnetic perturbation (kTMP): a new non-invasive method to modulate cortical excitability and behavior.
  Brain Stimulation 2025 Christina Merrick, Philipp Reber, Katheryn Thayer-Phan, Saumya Singh, Angel Peterchev, Karunesh Ganguly, Cidnee Luu, Daniel Sheltraw, Richard Ivry, Ludovica Labruna
• Coupling of Slow Oscillations in the Prefrontal and Motor Cortex Predicts Onset of Spindle Trains and Persistent Memory Reactivations.
  The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience 2024 Darevsky D, Kim J, Ganguly K
• Author Correction: A high-performance neuroprosthesis for speech decoding and avatar control.
  Nature 2024 Metzger SL, Littlejohn KT, Silva AB, Moses DA, Seaton MP, Wang R, Dougherty ME, Liu JR, Wu P, Berger MA, Zhuravleva I, Tu-Chan A, Ganguly K, Anumanchipalli GK, Chang EF
• A bilingual speech neuroprosthesis driven by cortical articulatory representations shared between languages.
  Nature biomedical engineering 2024 Silva AB, Liu JR, Metzger SL, Bhaya-Grossman I, Dougherty ME, Seaton MP, Littlejohn KT, Tu-Chan A, Ganguly K, Moses DA, Chang EF
• Brain-Computer Interfaces for Rehabilitation After Stroke.
  Ischemic Stroke Therapeutics 2024 Karunesh Ganguly
• Information flow between motor cortex and striatum reverses during skill learning.
  Current biology : CB 2024 Lemke SM, Celotto M, Maffulli R, Ganguly K, Panzeri S
• Highly Generalizable Spelling Using a Silent-Speech BCI in a Person with Severe Anarthria.
  Brain-Computer Interface Research 2024 Sean L. Metzger, Jessie R. Liu, David A. Moses, Maximilian E. Dougherty, Margaret P. Seaton, Kaylo T. Littlejohn, Josh Chartier, Gopala K. Anumanchipalli, Adelyn Tu-Chan, Karunesh Ganguly, Edward F. …
• Emergence of task-related spatiotemporal population dynamics in transplanted neurons.
  Nature communications 2023 Ghuman H, Kim K, Barati S, Ganguly K
• Terminal organization of the corticospinal projection from the arm/hand region of the rostral primary motor cortex (M1r or old M1) to the cervical enlargement (C5-T1) in rhesus monkey.
  The Journal of comparative neurology 2023 Morecraft RJ, Ge J, Stilwell-Morecraft KS, Lemon RN, Ganguly K, Darling WG
• Spinal stimulation for unfreezing gait in Parkinson's disease.
  Nature medicine 2023 Mizrahi-Kliger A, Ganguly K
• A high-performance neuroprosthesis for speech decoding and avatar control.
  Nature 2023 Metzger SL, Littlejohn KT, Silva AB, Moses DA, Seaton MP, Wang R, Dougherty ME, Liu JR, Wu P, Berger MA, Zhuravleva I, Tu-Chan A, Ganguly K, Anumanchipalli GK, Chang EF
• Flexible regulation of representations on a drifting manifold enables long-term stable complex neuroprosthetic control.
  bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology 2023 Natraj N, Seko S, Abiri R, Yan H, Graham Y, Tu-Chan A, Chang EF, Ganguly K
• Emergence of preparatory dynamics in VIP interneurons during motor learning.
  Cell reports 2023 Arroyo S, Barati S, Kim K, Aparicio F, Ganguly K
• Measuring Arm and Hand Joint Kinematics to Estimate Impairment During a Functional Reach and Grasp Task after Stroke.
  Neurorehabilitation and neural repair 2023 Khanna P, Oppenheim T, Tu-Chan A, Abrams G, Ganguly K
• P-17 Cortical-subcortical information flow reverses from naive to skilled movements.
  Clinical Neurophysiology 2023 S. Lemke, M. Celotto, R. Maffulli, K. Ganguly, S. Panzeri
• Targeted modulation of neural population dynamics to improve movement control.
  Brain Stimulation 2023 Karunesh Ganguly
• Generalizable spelling using a speech neuroprosthesis in an individual with severe limb and vocal paralysis.
  Nature communications 2022 Metzger SL, Liu JR, Moses DA, Dougherty ME, Seaton MP, Littlejohn KT, Chartier J, Anumanchipalli GK, Tu-Chan A, Ganguly K, Chang EF
• Selective modulation of cortical population dynamics during neuroprosthetic skill learning.
  Scientific reports 2022 Zippi EL, You AK, Ganguly K, Carmena JM
• Modulation of neural co-firing to enhance network transmission and improve motor function after stroke.
  Neuron 2022 Ganguly K, Khanna P, Morecraft RJ, Lin DJ
• Transition from predictable to variable motor cortex and striatal ensemble patterning during behavioral exploration.
  Nature communications 2022 Kondapavulur S, Lemke SM, Darevsky D, Guo L, Khanna P, Ganguly K
• Recovery of consolidation after sleep following stroke-interaction of slow waves, spindles, and GABA.
  Cell reports 2022 Kim J, Guo L, Hishinuma A, Lemke S, Ramanathan DS, Won SJ, Ganguly K
• Timescales of Local and Cross-Area Interactions during Neuroprosthetic Learning.
  The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience 2021 Derosier K, Veuthey TL, Ganguly K
• Coupling between motor cortex and striatum increases during sleep over long-term skill learning.
  eLife 2021 Lemke SM, Ramanathan DS, Darevksy D, Egert D, Berke JD, Ganguly K
• Neuroprosthesis for Decoding Speech in a Paralyzed Person with Anarthria.
  The New England journal of medicine 2021 Moses DA, Metzger SL, Liu JR, Anumanchipalli GK, Makin JG, Sun PF, Chartier J, Dougherty ME, Liu PM, Abrams GM, Tu-Chan A, Ganguly K, Chang EF
• Coordinated increase of reliable cortical and striatal ensemble activations during recovery after stroke.
  Cell reports 2021 Guo L, Kondapavulur S, Lemke SM, Won SJ, Ganguly K
• Cellular-scale silicon probes for high-density, precisely localized neurophysiology.
  Journal of neurophysiology 2020 Egert D, Pettibone JR, Lemke S, Patel PR, Caldwell CM, Cai D, Ganguly K, Chestek CA, Berke JD
• Single-trial cross-area neural population dynamics during long-term skill learning.
  Nature communications 2020 Veuthey TL, Derosier K, Kondapavulur S, Ganguly K
• The Degree of Nesting between Spindles and Slow Oscillations Modulates Neural Synchrony.
  The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience 2020 Silversmith DB, Lemke SM, Egert D, Berke JD, Ganguly K
• A consensus statement: defining terms for reactivation analysis.
  Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences 2020 Genzel L, Dragoi G, Frank L, Ganguly K, de la Prida L, Pfeiffer B, Robertson E
• Changes in the coupling of slow-waves with spindles tracks motor recovery after stroke.
  IBRO Reports 2019 Jaekyung Kim, April Hishinuma, Ling Guo, Seok-Joon Won, Karunesh Ganguly
• Large-scale changes in cortical dynamics triggered by repetitive somatosensory electrical stimulation.
  Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitation 2019 Hishinuma AK, Gulati T, Burish MJ, Ganguly K
• Low-frequency cortical activity is a neuromodulatory target that tracks recovery after stroke.
  Nature medicine 2018 Ramanathan DS, Guo L, Gulati T, Davidson G, Hishinuma AK, Won SJ, Knight RT, Chang EF, Swanson RA, Ganguly K
• Shaping Reality through Mental Rehearsal.
  Neuron 2018 Natraj N, Ganguly K
• Effects of somatosensory electrical stimulation on motor function and cortical oscillations.
  Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitation 2017 Tu-Chan AP, Natraj N, Godlove J, Abrams G, Ganguly K
• Neural reactivations during sleep determine network credit assignment.
  Nature neuroscience 2017 Gulati T, Guo L, Ramanathan DS, Bodepudi A, Ganguly K
• Enhancing low-frequency oscillations using on-demand direct-current stimulation improves motor function after stroke.
  Brain Stimulation 2017 D.S. Ramanathan, L. Guo, T. Gulati, S.J. Won, G. Davidson, A. Hishinuma, K. Ganguly
• Emergence of Coordinated Neural Dynamics Underlies Neuroprosthetic Learning and Skillful Control.
  Neuron 2017 Athalye VR, Ganguly K, Costa RM, Carmena JM
• Muscle synergies after stroke are correlated with perilesional high gamma.
  Annals of clinical and translational neurology 2016 Godlove J, Gulati T, Dichter B, Chang E, Ganguly K
• Muscle synergies after stroke are correlated with perilesional high gamma
  Annals of Clinical and Translational Neurology 2016 Godlove J, Gulati T, Dichter B, Chang E, Ganguly K
• Sleep-Dependent Reactivation of Ensembles in Motor Cortex Promotes Skill Consolidation.
  PLoS biology 2015 Ramanathan DS, Gulati T, Ganguly K
• Cortical neuroprosthetics from a clinical perspective.
  Neurobiology of disease 2015 Tsu AP, Burish MJ, GodLove J, Ganguly K
• Robust neuroprosthetic control from the stroke perilesional cortex.
  The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience 2015 Gulati T, Won SJ, Ramanathan DS, Wong CC, Bodepudi A, Swanson RA, Ganguly K
• An automated behavioral box to assess forelimb function in rats.
  Journal of neuroscience methods 2015 Wong CC, Ramanathan DS, Gulati T, Won SJ, Ganguly K
• Neurologic rehabilitation.
  Seminars in neurology 2014 Ganguly K, Abrams GM
• Reactivation of emergent task-related ensembles during slow-wave sleep after neuroprosthetic learning.
  Nature neuroscience 2014 Gulati T, Ramanathan DS, Wong CC, Ganguly K
• Activity-dependent neural plasticity from bench to bedside.
  Neuron 2013 Ganguly K, Poo MM
• Neurorehabilitation: motor recovery after stroke as an example.
  Annals of neurology 2013 Ganguly K, Byl NN, Abrams GM
• Task-dependent changes in cross-level coupling between single neurons and oscillatory activity in multiscale networks.
  PLoS computational biology 2012 Canolty RT, Ganguly K, Carmena JM
• Management of chronic myelopathy symptoms and activities of daily living.
  Seminars in neurology 2012 Ganguly K, Abrams GM
• Assessing functional connectivity of neural ensembles using directed information.
  Journal of neural engineering 2012 So K, Koralek AC, Ganguly K, Gastpar MC, Carmena JM
• Detecting event-related changes of multivariate phase coupling in dynamic brain networks.
  Journal of neurophysiology 2012 Canolty RT, Cadieu CF, Koepsell K, Ganguly K, Knight RT, Carmena JM
• Redundant information encoding in primary motor cortex during natural and prosthetic motor control.
  Journal of computational neuroscience 2011 So K, Ganguly K, Jimenez J, Gastpar MC, Carmena JM
• Reversible large-scale modification of cortical networks during neuroprosthetic control.
  Nature neuroscience 2011 Ganguly K, Dimitrov DF, Wallis JD, Carmena JM
• Neural correlates of skill acquisition with a cortical brain-machine interface.
  Journal of motor behavior 2010 Ganguly K, Carmena JM
• PW5-1 The role of neuronal oscillations in local computation and long-range communication.
  Clinical Neurophysiology 2010 R.T. Canolty, K. Ganguly, R.T. Knight, J.M. Carmena
• Oscillatory phase coupling coordinates anatomically dispersed functional cell assemblies.
  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 2010 Canolty RT, Ganguly K, Kennerley SW, Cadieu CF, Koepsell K, Wallis JD, Carmena JM
• System Architecture for Stiffness Control in Brain–Machine Interfaces.
  IEEE Transactions on Systems Man and Cybernetics Systems 2010 Rodolphe Héliot, Amy L. Orsborn, Karunesh Ganguly, Jose M. Carmena
• Learning in closed-loop brain-machine interfaces: modeling and experimental validation.
  IEEE transactions on systems, man, and cybernetics. Part B, Cybernetics : a publication of the IEEE Systems, Man, and Cybernetics Society 2009 Héliot R, Ganguly K, Jimenez J, Carmena JM
• Cortical representation of ipsilateral arm movements in monkey and man.
  The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience 2009 Ganguly K, Secundo L, Ranade G, Orsborn A, Chang EF, Dimitrov DF, Wallis JD, Barbaro NM, Knight RT, Carmena JM
• Emergence of a stable cortical map for neuroprosthetic control.
  PLoS biology 2009 Ganguly K, Carmena JM
• Goal-directed whisking increases phase-locking between vibrissa movement and electrical activity in primary sensory cortex in rat.
  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 2004 Ganguly K, Kleinfeld D
• Coincident pre- and postsynaptic activity modifies GABAergic synapses by postsynaptic changes in Cl- transporter activity.
  Neuron 2003 Woodin MA, Ganguly K, Poo MM
• GABA itself promotes the developmental switch of neuronal GABAergic responses from excitation to inhibition.
  Cell 2001 Ganguly K, Schinder AF, Wong ST, Poo M
• Enhancement of presynaptic neuronal excitability by correlated presynaptic and postsynaptic spiking.
  Nature neuroscience 2000 Ganguly K, Kiss L, Poo M