I am a neuroscientist interested in the structure function relationship of neurons and neuronal circuits. In the laboratory of Greg Jefferis at the LMB and in collaboration with the Drosophila Connectomics group at the Zoology department I am studying how innate and learned neuronal circuits converge. Animals have to constantly adjust their behaviour to their dynamic environments. Decisions are therefore a result of a complex interplay between evolutionary predisposition and individual experience. Thus far research was focused on two parallel pathways of information processing; innate behavioural responses and learning. Studying these pathways separately obscured the importance of looking at the interaction between them. This project aims to unravelling these connections all the way down to descending neurons (DNs) projecting to the ventral nerve cord (VNC) in Drosophila.
