Abstract
All animals, including humans, make continuous choices based on past experience, current sensory input and internal state. We use olfaction as a paradigm to study how experience (learning) and present stimuli (odour) direct behaviour in Drosophila larvae. Larvae can learn to associate an odour with a lack of reward. This is termed outcome specific conditioned inhibition (OSCI) and is an important learning mechanism that allows animals to adopt new approaches in changing environmental conditions. The aim of this project is to understand the neural basis of OSCI.
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