Our group is interested in the biggest Unknown in our world: our brain. We believe that the main task of brains is to enable us to do the right thing at the right time. We want to understand how this works: how do brains organize behavior. 

But the human is huge and extremely complex. Currently, it is estimated that it contains about 70 billion nerve cells, all communicating with each other, all the time! Therefore, we decided to first try to understand a much simpler brain – that of a little insect, the fruit fly. So, our group tries to understand how insects “think”.

On the following pages, we will introduce some background of our research. In each section, you will find a selection of useful links for further reading.

Continue reading:

• Why flies?

• Genetic tools in flies

• Associative learning

• The dopamine system

• The Individual Maggot Behavior Analysis

• Our current research projects