Prof. Moshe Parnas

We use the fruit fly to study how the brain encodes information and how neural circuits support behavior, learning and memory. Flies are extremely useful to answer such questions since they have a simple nervous system that is highly amenable to genetic manipulation, yet the principles governing its activity are exactly like ours.

Research at the lab is performed from the level of single proteins’ function and up to the level of behaving animals. Using genetic tools and a multidisciplinary approach we modulate the activity of proteins and neural circuits in behaving animals and examine the consequences such manipulations have on flies’ perception, decisions and behavior.

In particular, research at the lab revolves around two main questions:

1. we are interested in a recently discovered phenomena in which proteins called G-protein coupled receptors change their activity when neurons change their electrical activity. However, whether, these changes in G-protein coupled receptors activity have physiological roles is not known. We study the role of GPCR voltage dependence in learning and memory.

2. We can form memories by a number of processes among them classical and operant conditioning. It is believed that classical and operant memories are additive. However, the two memories can result in opposing behavioral responses, which can be disadvantageous. We study the relationship between classical and operant conditioning.