# Neural circuit mechanisms underlying hierarchical visual processing in Drosophila

> **NIH NIH F32** · STANFORD UNIVERSITY · 2020 · $70,446

## Abstract

Project summary
 Understanding how neural circuits give rise to sensory computation and, ultimately, perception, requires
connecting biological features of neural circuits to abstract models of neural computation. In vison, a model of
the visual receptive field (RF) describes how a neuron's responses are determined by the visual inputs it
encounters. The visual RF can also provide a compact description of a neuron's function, revealing which
features of the external environment that neuron is responsible for encoding. Complex RFs in the visual system
are responsible for high-level computations like object recognition as well as mid-level features of visual
representation like size selectivity and translation invariance. The complexity of many higher-order visual circuits
has made it difficult to connect models of these representations to the biological circuits that they are supposed
to represent.
 Neural circuits across sensory systems and species often rely on convergent computational and
algorithmic strategies to encode features of the external environment. This project will leverage this fact to
address the question of the biological basis of complex RF structure in a tractable context, the visual system of
Drosophila. In this postdoctoral training fellowship, the applicant will use state-of-the-art imaging techniques and
fluorescent reporters of neural activity to describe complex RF features in neurons of the Drosophila optic lobe
which project to the central brain. These results will be used to generate hierarchical models of complex RFs
that are grounded in biological circuits.
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## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10003392
- **Project number:** 5F32MH118707-03
- **Recipient organization:** STANFORD UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Maxwell Holte Turner
- **Activity code:** F32 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $70,446
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2018-09-30 → 2021-09-29

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10003392

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10003392, Neural circuit mechanisms underlying hierarchical visual processing in Drosophila (5F32MH118707-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10003392. Licensed CC0.

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