Abstract
To ensure survival in an ever-changing, complex world, animal behavior needs to be
flexible and adaptive. Nervous systems have evolved to enable behavioral responses to
a wide variety of sensory stimuli, but the adequate response to a given stimulus is highly
context dependent. Accordingly, behavioral and internal states affect sensorimotor
processing. For example, locomotion modulates responses of visual sensorimotor
pathways, and hunger drives foraging behavior and shifts taste preferences. Despite their
ubiquitous importance, the neuronal mechanisms enabling such context-dependent
sensorimotor flexibility are not well understood. My lab aims to shed light on these
mechanisms by combining neurogenetics, automated behavioral analysis, and
connectomics with in-vivo patch-clamp recordings and calcium imaging in
behaving Drosophila.
In this talk, I will first focus on the neuronal control of walking, which provides the
foundation for many crucial behaviors, such as foraging, dispersal, and reproduction. I
will highlight the key role descending neurons play in modulating walking behavior and,
more generally, in selecting contextually appropriate actions depending on the animal’s
state. Second, I will discuss our efforts to develop a better understanding of the complex
arsenal of modulatory neurons in the brain, and their role in shaping neuronal network
activity to enable state-dependent behavioral flexibility. Here, I will focus on the role of
insulin-producing cells in integrating behavioral and nutritional states to accommodate the
highly dynamic metabolic demands of behaving animals.