Events

"The physics of fly navigation"

Navigation circuits in the insect brain represent, add and multiply vectors and perform coordinate transformations and other computations to guide behaviors such as odor plume tracking.  In Drosophila, the ability to study behaviors in virtual reality while imaging the fly brain, combined with genetic methods for modifying neural activity and a complete wiring diagram of brain circuitry (the connectome), allow us to reveal the methods and mechanisms supporting these computations in great detail.  Physicist will find much that is familiar in the way flies compute with vectors, but will also notice some quirky features that will be explained.