报告题目：The internal sky compass in the brain of the desert locust

报告人：Prof. Dr. Uwe Homberg, Faculty of Biology, Animal Physiology, Philipps-Universit？t Marburg, Germany

时间地点：2019年9月5日13:00 9408

报告人简介：

Prof. Uwe Homberg received his Ph.D. from Free University Berlin, in 1982 with a degree in neurobiology. He proceeded to an assistant Professor, University of Arizona, Tucson. Since 1997, he has been Professor of Neurobiology/Ethology, Philipps-Universit？t Marburg, Germany. His research focused on the functional organization of the locust central complex in relation to its role in spatial orientation. Prof. Homberg was member of council, International Society for Neuroethology, and the current Chair of International Congress of Neuroethology and Board member of Center for Mind, Brain and Behavior.

报告摘要：

Insects are highly mobile animals that are able to cover large distances during flight, walking, or swimming. Like vertebrates, they, therefore, have to rely on sophisticated mechanisms for spatial orientation during such diverse behaviors as food collection, mate finding, seasonal migrations, and homing. I will provide evidence, obtained from experiments in desert locusts, that a group of brain centers, collectively termed the central complex, plays a key role in the control of spatial orientation. I will give an overview of the functional organization of the locust central complex in relation to its role in spatial orientation. Heading directions of the insect are represented in a topographic manner in neurons of the central complex by exploiting universally present compass signals from the sky such as the position of the sun and the polarization pattern of the blue sky. The data suggest that the central complex plays a similar role in spatial orientation as parts of the hippocampal formation in mammals.