How Connectomes Help Understand Navigational Attractor Dynamics

Explore a lecture on how connectomes aid in understanding navigational attractor dynamics in the brain. Delve into decades of neurophysiological recordings revealing neural dynamics consistent with attractor networks. Learn about recent research using calcium imaging and optogenetic perturbations in tethered flies to establish similar dynamics in a navigational brain center. Discover how these dynamics represent head direction and contribute to vector computations in downstream circuits. Examine the power of experiment-theory loops enabled by synaptic-resolution connectomes, allowing researchers to test and refine hypotheses generated from connectomic analysis. Gain insights into linking circuit structure and function in the context of attractor dynamics, which are believed to enable flexible behavior across the animal kingdom.