Michael H. Dickinson

Flies evolved a gyrocompass to maintain navigational accuracy during rapid flight maneuvers

This study shows that fly halteres function as a gyrocompass, maintaining heading accuracy during rapid flight turns by integrating inertial measurements with efference copy signals.

How tp1, an indirect wing steering muscle, stabilizes Drosophila's flight

This paper shows that indirect steering muscles in Drosophila help stabilize flight by adjusting wing pitch during large perturbations, using a nonlinear control strategy.

Tools for comprehensive reconstruction and analysis of a female Drosophila ventral nerve cord

The paper reconstructs and analyzes the female Drosophila ventral nerve cord connectome, identifying neural circuits that coordinate wings and legs during escape takeoff.

Synaptic architecture of leg and wing premotor control networks in Drosophila

The paper analyzes premotor circuits in Drosophila to compare leg and wing motor control networks, finding modular organization and differences in synaptic connectivity.

Machine learning reveals the control mechanics of the insect wing hinge

The paper uses machine learning to model how insect wing hinge muscles control wing motion and aerodynamic forces.

Descending control and regulation of spontaneous flight turns in Drosophila

This paper identifies a neural network in Drosophila that generates spontaneous flight turns and a neuron that inhibits these turns to promote straight flight.

Single-cell type analysis of wing premotor circuits in the ventral nerve cord of Drosophila melanogaster

The paper identifies 196 cell types in the Drosophila ventral nerve cord using split-GAL4 and links them to a connectomic dataset for circuit analysis.

The role of a population of descending neurons in the optomotor response in flying Drosophila

This study identifies DNg02 descending neurons as critical for the optomotor response in flying Drosophila, showing they regulate both power and steering through population coding.

A population of descending neurons that regulate the flight motor of Drosophila

The paper identifies a population of descending neurons in Drosophila that regulate wingbeat amplitude through a population code during flight.

Transforming representations of movement from body- to world-centric space

The paper identifies two cell types in Drosophila that encode body-centric movement signals and shows how they transform these signals into world-centric coordinates for navigation.

Drosophila re-zero their path integrator at the center of a fictive food patch

This study investigates how Drosophila use path integration to track food locations, finding that they re-zero their path integrator at the center of a fictive food patch when multiple food sites are present.

A Systematic Nomenclature for the Drosophila Ventral Nervous System

The paper provides a systematic nomenclature for the Drosophila ventral nervous system, extending an existing framework to include thoracic and abdominal neuromeres.

Visual-olfactory integration in the human disease vector mosquito, Aedes aegypti

This study investigates how olfactory and visual cues are integrated in mosquitoes, showing CO2 modulates visual responses and revealing asymmetrical, time-dependent neural coupling between these senses.

Drosophila have distinct activity-gated pathways that mediate attraction and aversion to CO2

The paper shows that Drosophila are attracted to CO2 during active foraging but avoid it at low activity, while ethanol is consistently attractive, revealing distinct activity-gated pathways for CO2 and ethanol responses.

Imaging neural activity in the ventral nerve cord of behaving adult Drosophila

The paper introduces a method for 2-photon functional imaging in Drosophila ventral nerve cord during behavior and identifies activity patterns in specific neurons.

Sun navigation requires compass neurons in Drosophila

Silencing compass neurons in Drosophila's central complex disrupts sun navigation but preserves phototaxis.

The functional organization of descending sensory-motor pathways in Drosophila

The paper maps descending sensory-motor pathways in Drosophila by creating transgenic lines and analyzing connectivity between brain and ventral nerve cord neuropils.

Modulation of host learning in Aedes aegypti mosquitoes

This study shows that aversive olfactory learning influences mosquito host preference, with dopamine playing a key role in modulating olfactory responses.