summary: Researchers set out to exploit the complex behavior of Drosophila melanogaster to understand brain-based navigation. With a $6.5 million grant from the NIH, they aim to decipher how multisensory information from the fly’s antennae, eyes and balance organs is integrated, particularly during sensor collisions. . The study leverages a newly mapped connectome and advanced genetic techniques. Insights gained from this research may shed light on human neurological function.
important facts:
- The study seeks to understand how the fly brain processes and integrates multisensory information, especially when there are mismatches between sensors.
- The complete brain connectome of Drosophila melanogaster has recently been mapped and a genetically engineered fly library has been developed to aid research.
- Along with Professor Cohen’s Cornell University, labs at institutions such as Johns Hopkins University, Princeton University, and Vanderbilt University are collaborating on this project.
sauce: Cornell University
Robust navigation is both essential to survival and dauntingly complex. Consider the speed and agility of a fly in flight.
An interdisciplinary research team led by Itai Cohen, professor of physics in the College of Arts and Sciences, used the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster to study how the brain forms coherent representations from multisensory information, corrects for errors caused by perturbations, and We plan to study how to generate the generated information. Robust action.
This project, supported by a $6.5 million grant from the NIH Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, may provide insights into human neurological function.
“We are poised to understand how flight integrates sensory modalities from the antennae, eyes, and nasal wings. [balancing organs] “Inside the fly’s brain,” Cohen said. “The goal is to understand how flies integrate sensory information when the sensors agree with each other about what’s going on, and when the sensors are inconsistent.”
The researchers are investigating whether flies prioritize certain sensors over others, and whether these priorities change depending on environmental conditions and the way humans navigate in the dark by touch rather than vision. We plan to investigate.
Drosophila offers researchers complex behavior, a complete brain connectome (all neurons and their connections), and a rich suite of powerful genetic and physiological tools, Cohen said.
The timing of this study also takes advantage of recent major advances in the field. This year, a complete map of the fly’s connectome was created and published, and a new library of genetically modified flies was developed that can turn individual neurons on and off using light. The researchers plan to build a new state-of-the-art facility that will leverage these techniques and combine them with the flies’ visual, wind, and magnetic perturbations to measure the resulting wing and body movements.
In addition to Cohen’s lab at Cornell University, participating labs are led by: Noah Cowan, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University. Brad Dickerson, Princeton Neuroscience Institute, Princeton University; Jessica Fox, Department of Biology, Case Western Reserve University; Sung Soo Kim, Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology, University of California, Santa Barbara. Marie Suber of Vanderbilt University’s School of Biological Sciences;
Students and postdoctoral researchers trained through this grant will also have access to these lab facilities.
About this neuroscience research news
author: becca bowyer
sauce: Cornell University
contact: Becca Bowyer – Cornell University
image: Image credited to Neuroscience News