By David Sly
Moving her laboratory and research team into the new Health and Medical Research Building (HMRB) at Bedford Park has Professor Karin Nordström particularly excited, as she believes her innovative neuroscience research will benefit greatly from the advanced facilities and fresh working environment.
Professor Nordström examines hoverflies to understand how the nervous system codes visual information, and the Motion Vision Group (MVG) she leads will be based in a new insectary, which will house her hoverfly motion vision lab.
“It’s a beautiful space and it’s going to be great working in there,” says Professor Nordström.
“I also really love the colour scheme of the office spaces, with subtle integration of colour tones – not only on different floors, but also between neighbouring areas. To be located in such a great facility, we’ll move forward in our work with such great confidence.”
Professor Nordström and her team have already achieved fantastic results from their novel research, providing a tantalising fresh glimpse into neuroscience. In their new laboratory, the MVG is poised to achieve much more in this field, using a range of techniques – electrophysiology of single neurons in the hoverfly nervous system, quantitative behaviour and free flight experiments.
It will help that the new lab space has three dedicated rearing chambers with controlled light, humidity and temperature. This will ensure absolute consistency and avoid any power failures or disruptions which can occur in older buildings.
Once the team completed its relocation to the new HMRB facility in May, the seven team members immediately resumed work on projects that include the use of a virtual reality arena for hoverflies, where flies have the freedom to explore a digital environment, rather than have image selection imposed on them.
It’s a novel idea for neurology research that had its genesis in trying to spin existing ways of recording hoverfly behaviour. “When we design experiments to test and record hoverflies, we typically dictate what the fly sees, and we record the outcomes. I really wanted the fly to control how it moved and what it wanted to see in these experiments, in the same way a human would choose their views when they are wearing virtual-reality goggles,” explains Professor Nordström.
“It’s taken a few years to get this system to work, but now it’s ready and we are keen to explore this idea further.”
Initial results from this new technique have offered surprises – including that hoverflies are especially curious about exploring a virtual environment in great detail. “I wasn’t even sure whether they would navigate within a virtual world,” says Professor Nordström. “I thought they would just ignore the virtual scenery and fly in clear space, but the opposite appears to be true. They interact with the virtual environment – and that’s a confirmation that it was worth the time we invested in developing this. They don’t get bored. They’re engaged with their virtual surroundings.”
Recording such responses to target motion opens even more questions about how hoverflies perform optimally, despite carrying small brains and low-resolution compound eyes.
“We know that hoverflies are highly sensitive to movement, so to understand how they visualise the world by the way they fly and position their bodies to capitalise on their decision-making will help us understand why they are so efficient at what they do,” says Professor Nordström.
“It’s going to be great to do this work in the HMRB, alongside other great teams of researchers and scientists. It’ll be very exciting to interact with new neighbours – and with so many small breakout areas and nooks dotted throughout the new building, it will be fantastic to strike up many more new conversations, to share and exchange our thoughts and ideas.”