Event:
We are delighted to announce our next Neuroscience Seminar Series talk. Presentations by experts in their field will take place both here at MPINB and via Zoom.
"Follow your nose: Using olfactory navigation in Drosophila to understand brain organization and function"
Katherine Nagel, NYU Grossman School of Medicine
Abstract
Flies readily find food sources by smell, an ethological behavior that requires multisensory integration of intermittent sensory cues. Using high throughput behavior, fly genetics, whole- cell electrophysiology, functional imaging, and connectomics, my lab has been dissecting the sensory and motor pathways that underlie this essential behavior. Our investigation has uncovered basic principles of brain organization in an ancient region of the brain known as the central complex. Ongoing work seeks to understand how this region builds abstract representations of internal variables needed for navigation, and uses recurrent circuitry to store information on multiple timescales.
The Nagel lab utilizes the fruit fly Drosophila to explore how the brain translates sensory inputs into motor responses, particularly focusing on how neural circuits integrate stimuli from diverse modalities to generate purposeful, goal-directed movements. Katherine and her team employ a combination of quantitative behavior analysis, whole-cell electrophysiology, genetic manipulations, and computational modeling to probe this inquiry across behavioral, algorithmic, circuit, and synaptic levels.
In-Person
MPINB Lecture Hall, Ludwig-Erhard-Allee 2, 53175 Bonn
Zoom
https://mpinb-mpg-de.zoom.us/j/63767300567
Meeting-ID: 637 6730 0567
