Overview
Research in my lab aims at understanding biological design principles in sensorimotor control. We pursue an integrative approach on comparatively simple insect model systems to discover fundamental principles of task-specific sensory integration, multisensor fusion, and sensorimotor transformation. The range of methods applied in the lab includes electrophysiological techniques, quantitative behavioural measurements, and computational modeling. More recently I became particularly interested in interdisciplinary collaborations to exploit the potential of biological principles for the engineering design of artificial sensorimotor control systems.
My lab at Imperial College and partly together with my national as well as international collaborators we work on research topics including:
- Design, adaptability, and plasticity of sensorimotor transformations in flying insects.
- The neural basis of optic flow processing and self-motion estimation for inner-loop reflexes such as gaze stabilization and flight control in insects.
- State-dependent processing of sensory information in flying insects.
- Dynamic range fractioning of multisensory control in insects.
- Forward models (efference copy) in fly motor control.
- The neuronal mechanisms underlying collision avoidance and escape behaviour in locusts.
- The development of new micro-recording probes to set up brain-machine interfaces.
Royal Society
BBSRC
USAF Research Laboratory/EOARD
US Air Force Office of Scientific Research/EOARD
Human Fontier Science Project
Collaborators
Prof Sean Humbert, University of Maryland, USA, Aerospace Engineering
Dr Matthias Franz, Max-Planck Institut fuer Biologische Kybernetik, Tuebingen, Germany
Prof Fabrizio Gabbiani, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, USA
Dr Graham Taylor, Department of Zoology, University of Oxford
Prof Simon Laughlin, Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge
Prof Martin Egelhaaf, Lehrstuhl fuer Neurobiology, Bielefeld University, Germany
Research Staff
Longden,DK
Parsons,DM
Wicklein,DM
Research Student Supervision
Ejaz,N, Fly Machine Interface
Fiche,C, Local input organization of visual interneurons
Huang,JJ, Brain machine interfacing
Konvalinka,I, Compound eye structure and local motion analysis
Peterson,K, Fly Machine Interface
Schwyn,D, Kinematic and dynamic analysis of fly head movements