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Blog Posts, Neuron of the Month
May 2020
by Imaan Tamimi Reporting from lockdown with the Neuron Of The Month, we have a Lateral Horn Output Neuron (LHON) called AV6a3. Neurons communicate with one another through their dendrites and axons. Dendrites (cyan) are projections that receive inputs (cyan spheres) from other neurons, while axons (red) are projections that […]
Prepare for trouble, and make it double
by Billy Morris One of the key benefits of connectomics is that we establish the layout of the nervous system and its constituent elements. Knowing how the elements that make up the brain are connected simplifies the challenge of understanding how the brain processes information, executes behaviour and is modulated […]
Testing the water
All animals have a preferred temperature range, whether they’re crocodiles basking in the sun or a naked-mole rat burrowing underground. Being able to accurately sense environmental temperature (thermosensation) is a life or death scenario: too hot and the animal risks overheating whereas too cold can bring about hypothermia. Understanding how […]
Alumni Spotlight
During my time in the Connectomics group, I collaborated with the Sexual Dimorphism team. In Drosophila melanogaster, the male pheromone 11-cis-vaccenyl acetate (cVA) evokes sexually dimorphic behaviours, stimulating courtship in females while eliciting aggression in males. It has previously been shown that this arises from anatomical and molecular differences between […]
Alumni Spotlight
Whilst in Cambridge I contributed to tracing neurons and analysing connectivity of the mushroom body. This region of the fly brain is involved in olfactory associative learning and memory. Our subteam in Cambridge collaborated with Scott Waddell’s lab at the University of Oxford. I enjoyed being involved in applying findings […]
Blog Posts, Neuron of the Month
February 2019
By Irene Varela February’s neuron of the month is a type of sexually dimorphic neuron known as an aSP-g. In females, aSP-g neurons extend their dendrites (bright green) throughout the lateral horn (yellow), a higher olfactory centre for innate behaviour, whereas in males they do not. This morphological difference explains […]
You’re Hot and You’re Cold
By Elizabeth Marin Anyone who has reached for an extra jumper on a cold morning or sought the shade of a tree on a hot afternoon realises that even warm-blooded animals prefer fairly narrow ranges of temperature and humidity. Mammals have sensory neurons that innervate the skin, among other organs, […]
Blog Posts, Neuron of the Month
September 2018
By Konrad Heinz September’s neuron of the month is a B’2a PAM DAN – it is a dopaminergic neuron of the mushroom body. The mushroom body (MB, shown in pink) is a major site of olfactory learning in the fly brain, and dopaminergic neurons (DANs), which release the widely conserved […]
Blog Posts, Neuron of the Month
August 2018
By Fiona Love August’s neuron of the month is a large lateral horn (LH) output neuron. Thanks to the resolution of the FAFB data set, we can annotate individual synapses, which tells us how this neuron is carrying information across the brain. This neuron gets most of its input in […]
Blog Posts, Neuron of the Month
June 2018
By Philipp Schlegel June’s neuron of the month is one of the excitatory uniglomerular olfactory projection neurons (PN). It receives input from Or82a-expressing sensory neurons in the VA6 glomerulus of the antennal lobe and responds to e.g. ethyl butyrate, a fruity odour. This PN is exemplary for the successful collaboration […]