Fly Neuroscience

We collaborate with Prof. Tom Clandinin’s lab to study how fruit flies transform visual stimuli into physical action.  Rather than using the traditional "fly-on-a-ball" setup, which confines flies to a fixed position, we are developing a new platform, called FlyVR, that allows flies to walk freely during experiments.  This not only elicits more natural responses, but also enables the study of a wider range of behaviors.  FlyVR consists of a large arena (1m x 1m) that is surrounded by TV screens.  As a fly walks around in the arena, a camera moves around to track it from above, using a modified CNC machine.  Image processing on the camera output is used to precisely measure the fly’s position and orientation, which are used to perspective-correct the visual stimuli being presented to the fly on the TV screens.  The end result is a general platform for performing visual feedback experiments.

Publication:
The evolutionary trajectory of drosophilid walking