Researchers are trying to unlock the complexities of the human brain, with its billions of neurons, by studying a brain on a much smaller scale – that of a fly. By comparison, a fly brain, with its roughly 100,000 nerve cells, is a manageable system for studying the basics of neural information processing.
In a recent New York Times article Decoding the Human Brain, With Help From a Fly, Nicholas Wade writes that biologists see the atlas of the fly brain as a first step toward understanding the human brain. On January 13, 2011, Prof. Axel Borst (Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology, Germany) and Prof. Claude Desplan (New York University, U.S.A.) discussed the principles of processing and decoding motion information and color cues in the fly brain at the German Center for Research and Innovation (GCRI) in New York. Prof. Borst’s research focuses on decoding motion information and how it is used for navigation and flight control in the cockpit of a fly. He also developed “Robofly”, a flying robot whose flight trajectory is controlled by visual stimuli. Prof. Desplan’s work focuses on color vision.
Both Prof. Borst and Prof. Desplan have identified and manipulated neurons involved in response to visual stimulation. Through one of Prof. Desplan’s postdocs, both scientists discovered a strong overlap between neurons involved in the fly’s visual motion and color perceptions. Their collaboration started in the fall 2010, and after their joint appearance at the GCRI this January, both professors will send postdocs to each other’s laboratories. Prof. Borst is the Director of Systems and Computational Neurobiology at the Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology in Martinsried, Germany. Prof. Desplan heads the Laboratory for Molecular Genetics at the Department of Biology at New York University. The event was organized in cooperation with the Max Planck Florida Institute.
The German Center for Research and Innovation, which will mark its first anniversary on February 19, 2011, provides information and support for the realization of cooperative and collaborative projects between North America and Germany in the humanities, science, and technology. With the goal of enhancing communication on the critical challenges of the 21st century, GCRI hosts a wide range of events from lectures and exhibitions to workshops and science dinners. Created as a cornerstone of the German government’s initiative to internationalize science and research, it is one of five centers worldwide.
The GCRI website, www.germaninnovation.org, will be launched in the coming weeks.
