Focus Session
SPLASHY
Statistical and Dynamical Physics of the Brain
11:30 am – 2:30 pm, Monday March 17 // Session MAR-B69 //Anaheim Hilton, San Simeon AB (Level 4)
How Flies Compute with Vectors
11:30 am – 12:06 pmPresenter: Larry F Abbott (Columbia University)
The central complex of the fly brain serves as a navigational computer. Neurons in this area perform all of the vector operations familiar to physicists- addition, subtraction, dot and cross products - using a phaser representation, with many of the operations hard-wired into the anatomy of the fly brain. I will describe neuronal circuits that transform vectors between ego- and allocentric coordinate systems, represent allocentric goals and, from them, compute turning signals, and I will present a model of how flies use vector computations to track odor plumes.
PRESENTATIONS (13)