LIN Seminar: “Sensing and Action across Time and Space” by Melville Wohlgemuth (University of Arizona)
September 25, 2025
12:30 PM - 1:30 PM
Location
SELE 4289
Calendar
Download iCal FilePlease join us at 4pm on September 25, 2025 in SELE 4289 for a LIN Seminar featuring "Sensing and Action across Time and Space" by Dr. Melville Wohlgemuth (University of Arizona)
Host: Angie Salles
Abstract: Life in the everyday world often involves the brain sensing and reacting to stimuli in the environment across multiple timescales and spatial dimensions. For example, when merging onto a highway we rapidly coordinate head and body movements to react to the cars around us while also planning our way onto the main road. For these behaviors, circuits in the brain process sensory information for instantaneous behavioral control while also planning for longer-term goals. We hypothesized that bottom-up circuits in the brain mediate moment-by-moment behavioral control, while top-down circuits influence behavior over longer time scales. To investigate this hypothesis, we have studied the natural hunting and spatial navigation behaviors of the echolocating bat in the laboratory. Using a combination of computational ethology, multichannel physiology paired with circuit perturbations, and wireless optogenetics in free flying bats, we are examining how an integrated bottom-up/top-down circuit in the mammalian brain mediates behavior across time and space.
Date posted
Apr 18, 2025
Date updated
Sep 11, 2025