Main Focus
Neural mechanism of odor-background segregation in Drosophila
I will investigate the neural mechanism that underlie insects capability to track a target odor in the presence of different odor plumes. I will first establish a behavioral assay to investigate flies odor-background segregation capability. I will then identify the neural networks that mediate odor-background segregation by manipulating the activity of genetically identifiable neurons. I will test the effect of these network manipulations with behavioral odor-background segregation and on neural representation of odors in the presence of background odors (optical imaging).
