Central complex

…by neurons in a region called the central complex. We investigated whet

…illustrated the fruit fly’s central complex, focusing on how hardwired circuit motifs (e.g., sinusoidal steering curves) enable rapid, flexible learning of goal-directed navigation. This framework combines internal heading representations with modifiable goal signals, leveraging activity-dependent plasticity to adapt to new environments. Fiete explored t

…In the insect brain, the central complex is crucial for spatial orientation. In desert locusts and fruit flies, compass neurons in the central complex encode the animal’s heading relative to the sun [2, 5]. However, the neural computations underlying the transformations of visual inputs to a compass signal remain elusive. In fruit flies, it is hypothesised that visual information is relayed from tangential neu- rons to compass neurons through likely inhibitory all-to-all connections with plastic synapses [1]. We aim to exp

…how a circuit in the Drosophila Central Complex (CX) might integrate airflow and optic flow

…key inputs for this information to the central complex (CX), a navigational center of insect brains. Recent studies have reported that the responses of several of these neurons correlate with self-motion and with optic flow resulting from rotations and translations in 2D. However, flying animals, like bats and inse

…appear to be functions of the Central Complex, a highly

…in a conserved brain region called the central complex. Two-photon calcium imaging of genetically targeted neural populations in the central complex of tethered fruit flies behaving in virtual reality (VR) environments has shown that the head-direction representation is updated based on self-motion cues and external sensory information, such as visual features and wind direction. Thus far, the he

…to their overwintering sites in Central Mexico. To maintain their southward direction, these butterflies rely on celestial cues as orientation references. The position of the sun combined with additional skylight cues are integrated in the central complex, a region in the butterfly’s brain that acts as an internal compass. However, the central complex does not solely guide the butterflies on their migration but also helps monarchs in their non-migratory form manoeuvre on foraging trips through their habitat. By comparing the activity

…conserved brain region known as the central complex has been identified as being of key importance for the computations required for an insect to keep track of its heading. However, the similarities or differences of the underlyin

Olfactory navigation provides a tractable model for studying the circuit basis of sensori-motor transformations and goal-directed behaviour. Macroscopic organisms typically navigate in odor plumes that provide a noisy and uncertain signal about the location of an odor source. Work in many species has suggested that animals accomplish this task by combining temporal processing of dynamic odor information with an estimate of wind direction. Our lab has been using adult walking Drosophila to understand both the computational algorithms and the neural circuits that support navigation in a plume