What do different parts of the brain do? We can answer this question by recording the activity of the entire brain while exposing an animal to a stimulus, such as a simple flash of light. By presenting many types of stimuli, we can learn how the brain represents information and uses it to control behavior.
Part of ourThinking in Graphs Collection, this graph represents the neural activity of a fruit fly brain in response to a flash of light. Each square contains a trace which depicts neural activity over time at a fixed point in the brain. Neighboring squares represent neighboring points in space. Color saturation represents the strength of the response.Learn more about the research >>.
About the Scientist
Luke Brezovec is a Stanford University PhD Neuroscience candidate. He is interested in how neural circuits communicate with each other. Specifically, what is the structure of the interface between brain areas that process visual information and those that ultimately control behavior? To explore this question, he records the neural activity of the entire brain of the fruit fly, drosophila, while it explores virtual worlds.
