Teachers

Our primary goal is to reveal how neuronal circuits work as a system to process sensory inputs, and how this processing is modulated by a specific environment or by the mental state or the condition of the body. The answers to these questions would reveal how an animal displays adaptive behavior in response to a given situation that changes moment by moment, or even develops intelligent behavior to cope with a difficult situation. To study these problems in our laboratory, we are utilizing two invertebrate animals, the fly and the cephalopod.

References

• Sugime Y, Watanabe D, Yasuno Y, Shinada T, Miura T, Tanaka NK*. (2017) The upregulation of juvenile hormone titers in female Drosophila melanogaster through mating experiences and host food occupied by eggs and larvae. Zoological Science 34:52-57.
• Yagi R, Mabuchi Y, Mizunami M, Tanaka NK*. (2016) Convergence of multimodal sensory pathways to the mushroom body calyx in Drosophila melanogaster. Scientific Reports 6: 29481; doi: 10.1038/srep29481.
• Koizumi M, Shigeno S, Mizunami M, Tanaka NK*. (2016) Three-dimensional brain atlas of pygmy squid, Idiosepius paradoxus, revealing the largest relative vertical lobe system volume among the cephalopods. Journal of Comparative Neurology 524:2142-2157.