Ribeiro Lab

Vergrößern

The overarching question guiding our research is how visual cues are combined and modulated in the central brain to guide dynamic social behaviors. We study courtship and avoidance behavior in Drosophila melanogaster fruit flies and leverage the myriad genetic tools along with robust behaviors to dissect the neural circuits processing visual information used to detect and locate conspecific flies. Another a main focus of the lab is to train students and young scientists and prepare them for a bright future in STEM.

Research

Social behaviors in fruit flies

Courtship is both risky and essential for survival. Animals use multimodal sensory cues to detect and recognize potential mates and distinguish them from potential competitors or predators. Visual cues are crucial for courtship and avoidance in fruit flies. Using robust behavioral paradigms that include the traditional single-pair courtship assay as well as novel assays, we aim to delineate and characterize neural circuits processing visual cues that orchestrate courtship, and avoidance in fruit flies.

Salience of visual cues in courtship internal state

The set of visual features the male perceives as he goes about his courtship ritual is very diverse, ranging from a moving object to looming. The neural circuits mediating entry into this internal state are known, but how the courtship internal state drives salience of LC10a-visual information, with apparent detriment of information coming from of other visual projection neurons, remains unknown. We will take advantage of the large repertoire of genetic tools in Drosophila melanogaster, ranging from genetic access to single neuron types to gene disruption, to address this knowledge gap.

Neural circuits and computations: processing of visual information

Detection of discrete objects underlies seemingly disparate behaviors such as courtship, aggression, and avoidance in Drosophila melanogaster. We identified LC10d visual projection neurons as important players in avoidance of a discrete object that is unidentified at the chemosensory level. Current work in the lab aims to characterize the transformations occurring from stimulus-correlated visual information entering the AOTu to the output signal correlated with motor actions, such as turning towards or away from another fly.

People

Publications

List of Publications