Skip to main content
Go to the home page of the European Commission (opens in new window)
English English
CORDIS - EU research results
CORDIS
Content archived on 2024-05-30

Neural Basis of Olfactory Perception in Drosophila

Objective

In insects the axons of primary olfactory receptor neurons terminate in specific glomeruli in the antennal lobe. Second order neurons relay this information to two higher olfactory centres, the mushroom body and the lateral horn, the special focus of this proposal. Functional inactivation and ablation of the mushroom body suggest that it is specific to olfactory learning, while the lateral horn is sufficient for more basic olfactory responses, including those which can be characterised as innate. Despite this importance, there is almost no structural and functional information on the third order neurons of the lateral horn. My research programme aims to generate a complete wiring diagram of the relevant neural circuits, characterise the receptive fields of these neurons and determine the cellular and circuit basis of the processing of olfactory information in this system. These scientific goals depend on a cross-disciplinary combination of molecular genetic techniques to label and stimulate identified neurons in the olfactory pathway, in vivo neurophysiology, optical stimulation and large-scale electron microscopy. One specific model system that I will use to address general questions of olfactory perception will be the study of sex-pheromone processing, where I have obtained new anatomical data that identify likely components of the pathway that turns smell into sex-specific behaviour. All these experiments will help us to understand how identified neurons integrate and transform specific odour information–the neural basis of olfactory perception. I hypothesise that by studying a discrete circuit down to the level of each identified neuron, I can new obtain new insights into information processing that will be of general relevance to neurobiology.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.

You need to log in or register to use this function

Keywords

Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)

Topic(s)

Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.

Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

ERC-2007-StG
See other projects for this call

Funding Scheme

Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.

ERC-SG - ERC Starting Grant

Host institution

MEDICAL RESEARCH COUNCIL
EU contribution
€ 1 750 000,00
Address
20 Park Crescent
W1B 1AL LONDON
United Kingdom

See on map

Activity type
Public bodies (excluding Research Organisations and Secondary or Higher Education Establishments)
Links
Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

No data

Beneficiaries (1)

My booklet 0 0