Tomoko Ohyama
Associate Professor
I am interested in how animals select specific modes of locomotion and behavior sequences, using sensory information from multiple stimulus modalities, prior experience, and internal states. Drosophila larvae have a rich repertoire of behaviors they produce in response to specific stimuli and use various strategies to escape from unpleasant stimuli. To achieve this, the larval brain must produce specific spatiotemporal patterns of output appropriate to the corresponding patterns of sensory input. To understand the circuit principles by which behavioral choices are made, we combine high-throughput behavior analysis with live imaging/physiology of neural activity and transmission electron microscopy reconstruction of neuronal circuits.