Gustavo Madeira Santana

Gustavo Madeira Santana ‘26

(he/him)

Home Department: Interdepartmental Neuroscience Program (Emonet Lab)

Research Project: Motion detection in olfaction: how the fly brain encodes odor motion

Olfactory navigation, a common task in the animal kingdom, is critical for the survival of many especies; it aids in locating food and avoiding predators. Insects have been thought to use the strategy of moving upwind when detecting an odor and moving crosswind when odors are absent. Our lab recently discovered that Drosophila uses the direction of odor motion, which can be different from wind direction, to aid navigation. By using a novel virtual reality system, it was found that flies detect odor motion using temporal correlations of the odor signal captured by their antennae, inherently similar to visual motion detection. The aim of this ongoing research is to understand the principles and mechanisms of odor motion detection and its role in navigation, and uncover neural circuits that process odor motion in the fly brain.

Relevant Publications:

Kadakia, N. et al. (2022) Odour motion sensing enhances navigation of complex plumes

Demir, M. et al. (2020) Walking Drosophila navigate complex plumes using stochastic decisions biased by the timing of odor encounters