| My main research goal is to decipher how neural circuits organize olfactory inputs to control behavior in insects with the emphasis on Drosophila melanogaster. I am heading the independent Research Group Olfactory Coding which is hosted by the Department of Evolutionary Neuroethology. In the last years my group has identified crucial neuronal mechanisms that enable an animal to encode, process and interpret the vast array of odors and to accomplish odor-guided decisions. We were able to pinpoint the neuronal correlates to specific behavioral outputs resulting from the perception of odor mixtures, we demonstrated that the neural composition of every olfactory glomerulus is unique and correlated to its functional relevance, and we could show that higher brain centers decode the behavioral value of an odor. We are currently examining whether the olfactory circuitry is hardwired or can be modulated by previous experience and/or associative learning. Moreover, we are interested in multimodal sensory processing and integration. |
