ESF-EMBO Conference
Functional Neurobiology in Minibrains: From Flies to Robots and Back Again
17 - 22 October 2010
Hotel Eden Roc, Sant Feliu de Guixols, Spain
| SUNDAY 17 October |
17:00 onwards: Registration at the ESF desk
18:30: Welcome Drink
19:30: Dinner
| MONDAY 18 October |
9:00-9:15: OPENING WORDS
SESSION I: Sensory processing in flies and artificial systems
9:15-9:45: Alexander Borst - NEURO-MPG, DE
Neural Action Fields for Optic Flow Based Navigation
9:45-10:15: Mikko Juusola - The University of Sheffield, UK
Early neural infomation processings for visual invariance
SHORT TALKS
10:15-10:30: Franck Ruffier - CNRS & University of the Mediterranean, FR
From Bees’ surface following to Lunar landing
10:30-10:45: Bassem Hassan - KU Leuven, BE
Genetic control of neuronal circuit formation in the Drosophila visual system
10:45-11:15: COFFEE BREAK
11:15-11.45: Silke Sachse - Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, DE
In vivo visualization of odor coding and processing in the Drosophila brain
11:45-12:15: Joe Bell - Harvard Medical School, US
Engineering stimulus control for odour evoked flight behaviour
SHORT TALK
12:15-12:30: Agustin Gutierrez-Galvez - Universitat de Barcelona, ES
Chemical sensor technologies for artificial olfaction
12:30-13:00: Martin Göpfert - University of Göttingen, DE
Hearing in Drosophila: Mechanisms and Genes
13:00-13:30: Mala Murthy - Princeton University, US
Auditory Coding Mechanisms in Drosophila
13:30-15:00: LUNCH BREAK
SESSION II: Sensory-motor integration: multisensory integration
15:00-15:30: Holger Krapp - Imperial College London, UK
Multisensory reflex control in blowflies – an integrated systems approach
15:30-16:00: Vivek Jayaraman - Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Janelia Farm Research Campus, US
Exploring sensorimotor computation using physiology in tethered behaving Drosophila
16:00-16:30: Mark Frye - Howard Hughes Medical Institute and University of California, Los Angeles, US
Multisensory integration algorithms and circuits
16:30-17:00: Michael Reiser - Howard Hughes Medical Institute, US
Visual place memory in Drosophila
17:00-17:30: COFFEE BREAK
17:30-18:30: PANEL DISCUSSION: Sensing the world
Panelists: Alexander Borst, Vivek Jayaraman, Mark Frye, Holger Krapp, Mala Murthy
Proposed questions:
-Is there but one 'neuronal code'? Are there common principles of neural coding across sensory modalities? Is there a common code for sensory and motor processing?
- At which 'cost' can synthetic sensors be made better than their biological counterparts?
- Is there any sharp boundary between sensory and motor processing (a sensory-motor interface) in brains? In robots?
19:00-20:30: DINNER
20:30-22:30: POSTER SESSION
| TUESDAY 19 October |
SESSION III: Sensory-motor integration: spatial orientation and navigation
9:00-9:30: Markus Knaden - Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, DE
Smells like home – how desert ants use olfactory landmarks for navigation
9:30-10:00: Roland Strauss - Johannes Gutenberg University, DE
Little Secrets Fruit Flies Disclose to Autonomously Roving Robots: Modules of Behavioral Control in Drosophila
10:00-10:30: Matthieu Louis, Centre for Genomic Regulation, ES
Fly navigation in odor gradients
10:30-11:30: COFFEE BREAK & Group Photo
SESSION IV: Biorobotics & modeling of behavior
11:30-12:00: Dario Floreano - Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, CH
Moving through the Air in Cluttered Environments
12:00-12:30: Nicolas Franceschini - The Institute of Movement Sciences, FR
Vision based autopilots: from insects to robots and back again
12:30-13:00: Paul Verschure - Catalan Institute for Advanced Studies, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, ES
The insect brain and the myth of local computation: a case study of the locust LGMD neuron and the Synthetic Insect Project
13:00-15:00: LUNCH BREAK
15:00-15:30: Steven Fry - Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), CH
Visual flight speed control: From flies to robots
SHORT TALK
15:30-15:45: Jean-Christophe Zufferey - Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), CH
Fly-inspired control strategies for robotic microflyers
15:45-16:15: Aldo Faisal - Imperial College, London, UK
State-based models of motor behaviour
SHORT TALK
16:15-16:30: Shay Cohen - Tel Aviv University, IL
Free exploration in Drosophila melanogaster
16:30-17:00: COFFEE BREAK
SESSION V: Plasticity, operant and associative learning
17:00-17:30: Bertram Gerber - Universität Würzburg, DE
The organization of olfactory memory in larval Drosophila
SHORT TALKS
17:30-17:45: Julien Foucaud - CNRS, FR
A Morris Water Maze for Drosophila
17:45-18:00: Alexey Melkikh - Ural State Technical University, RU
Congenital or acquired: whether there is a difference between the robot and an organism?
18:00-18:30: Michael Schmuker - Freie Universität Berlin, DE
Insect olfactory microcircuits for better neuromorphic classification devices
19:00-20:30: DINNER
20:30-22:30: POSTER SESSION
| WEDNESDAY 20 October |
SESSION VI: Circuit mapping and functional inference
9:30-10:00: Gerry Rubin - Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Janelia Farm Research Campus, US
Genetic Tools for Studying the Anatomy and Function of the Drosophila Nervous System
10:00-10:30: Albert Cardona - ETH Zürich, CH
Somatosensory circuitry of Drosophila larva with synaptic resolution
10:30-11:00: Gero Miesenböck - University of Oxford, UK
Lighting Up the Brain
11:00-11:30: COFFEE BREAK
SESSION VII: Circuit mapping and functional inference
11:30-12:00: Greg Jefferis - MRC-Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, UK
Mapping sex differences in the fly brain
SHORT TALK
12:00-12:15: Amanda Sorribes - Instituto Cajal, ES
The origin of behavioral bursts in decision-making circuitry
12:15-12:30: Daisuke Yamamoto - Tohoku University, JP
Direct Activation of Identified Interneuron Clones Elicits the Courtship Ritual in Drosophila
12:30-13:00: Barry Dickson - Research Institute of Molecular Pathology, AT
Neurobiology of Drosophila courtship behaviour
13:00-14:30: LUNCH BREAK
14:30: 1/2 day EXCURSION
19:00-20:30 DINNER
20:30-21:30: PANEL DISCUSSION: Defining and understanding behaviour
Panelists: Carlos Ribeiro, Martin Heisenberg, Frederic Mery, Michael Reiser, Gerald Rubin
Proposed questions:
- Are there modules of behavior?
- What, if anything, could behavior analyses tell us about the ‘minds’ of flies? How could such findings help us design smarter robots?
- Would we be much advanced with a complete map of the brain of a single fly? How to balance clarity and detail of such a map?
21:30-22:30: POSTER SESSION
| THURSDAY 21 October |
SESSION VIII: Circuits and behavior in evolution, neuroecology
9:00-9:30: Richard Benton - University of Lausanne, CH
Olfactory evolution and revolution
SHORT TALKS
9:30-9:45: Shannon Olsson - Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, DE
Multimodal Divergence in Host Preference among Tephritid Fruit Flies
9:45-10:00: Joerg T. Albert - University College London, UK
Auditory tuning in Drosophilid flies
10:00-11:00: COFFEE BREAK
11:00-11:30: Marla Sokolowski - University of Toronto Mississauga, CA
Drosophila foraging behaviour: Is that for here or to go?
11:30-12:00: Frederic Mery - Genomes et Spéciation, CNRS, FR
The social fly: from simple interaction to social transmission in Drosophila
SESSION IX: Motivation, metabolism, internal states
12:00-12:30: Martin Heisenberg - University of Wuerzburg, DE
Attracting a fly's attention
12:30-13:00: Carlos Ribeiro - Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência, PT
The Molecular and Neuronal Control of Food Choice in Drosophila
13:00-15:00: LUNCH BREAK
CLOSING SESSION
15:00-15:30: Michael Dickinson - Caltech, US
Straighten up and fly right: Visual navigation in Fruit flies
15:30-16:00: Barbara Webb - University of Edinburgh, UK
Learning mechanisms and algorithms: what can a robot do with a fly brain?
16:30-17:00: COFFEE BREAK
17:00-18:00: PANEL DISCUSSION: From living creatures to robots and back again
Panelists: Michael Dickinson, Aldo Faisal, Nicolas Franceschini, Roland Strauss, Barbara Webb
Proposed questions:
- Should we better use laboratory-controlled or naturalistic behaviors to test specific hypotheses about sensorimotor control?
- What is the role of chance in behavior control?
- Given that a robot cannot be a fly, might a fly be a robot?
19:00-LATE: GET-TOGETHER AND CONFERENCE DINNER
| FRIDAY 22 October |
Breakfast and departure
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