Grant: Project Grant

We perceive the world through our five senses. A central questions of neuroscience is how nervous systems integrate information from multiple sensory modalities to make such decisions. Although recent research suggests that many neurological conditions (e.g., autism, schizophrenia) affect the capacity for such multisensory integration, our current understanding of this process has not yet yielded tangible benefits to society. The project proposed here is focused on discovering fundamental principles of how the brain processes multisensory information and translates this into action. We propose to use fruit fly larvae as model animals because they show behaviors that reflect multisensory processing, and we recently mapped out the core circuitry underlying this effect. In addition, the enormous number of techniques and tools for studying fruit flies makes it possible to test detailed hypotheses of brain function that are difficult to address in much larger mammalian brains. Here, we will identify circuit and molecular mechanisms associated with multisensory integration. The circuit motifs and molecules we discover will be used to identify homologues in other organisms. These studies may reveal principles that underlie multisensory integration and action selection, which in turn could lead to new interventions for improving decision-making in health and disease.