B07
Neurogenetic dissection of the visual motion detection circuitry in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster
Principal Investigators:
The detection of visual motion is a fundamental computation of any visual system. However, the neural circuits performing these computations are not well understood in any species. Studying this problem in Drosophila, we have defined the input and output neurons of the local circuits as well as the underlying algorithm. We now aim to identify the biophysical mechanisms that generate direction-selective motion signals in single cells. In a related project, we examine the roles of motion detectors for course control in walking and flying flies.