Devasena Thiagarajan

Research Interest

My research focuses on understanding the mechanisms that drive sensory integration across olfactory and visual modalities in the Drosophila melanogaster brain. Using a classical conditioning paradigm, I focus especially on the ability of these flies to acquire and retain punishment-specific memories using odor and light as conditioned stimuli. I investigate the behavioral outcomes of multimodal learning and their neuronal underpinnings in higher brain centers such as the mushroom body and lateral horn. currently I am also studying the processing of bimodal information in non-model species of the genus Drosophila to identify species-specific differences in learning behaviors.