Prof. Gaia Tavosanis, DZNE, Bonn, Germany: "Circuit plasticity in a small brain"

Abstract: In our daily experience, we are confronted with a palette of sensory stimuli to which we need to react, for instance by adapting or modifying our behavioral response. We are interested in the capacity of the nervous system to undergo plastic changes allowing for modulations of behavioral output, including learning, and how this capacity is lost during ageing or affected in disease. I will discuss our recent work, revealing plastic modifications of the adult fly nervous system that encompass different levels, from molecular alterations of synapse composition to structural reorganization of central circuits after learning.