SPECIAL SEMINAR:

Mark Frye, PhD

UCLA Department of Physiological Science May 14, 2009 10:00 - 11:00 MRL 1st Floor Conference Room

Sensory-motor integration in Drosophila: neuromechanics and circuits

Abstract: Flies move fast and act quickly. In my lab we measure high performance locomotor behavior with "virtual reality" walking and flight simulators to study the functional algorithms by which a tiny resource limited brain fuses information from multiple sensory modalities. Moreover, genetic tools in Drosophila allow active manipulation of the underlying structural microcircuits. I will discuss recent analyses of cross-modal behavioral computations and the circuits involved in motion detection, odor gradient tracking, and odor enhanced visual stabilization.