Bio: Dr. Paul Szyszka

photo_dr Paul SzyszkaInsects live in a complicated olfactory environment. Airborne odors distribute in small packages, intermingle and fluctuate at different time scales. Therefore, olfactory stimuli contain much less information about identity and location of their sources than visual or auditory scenes. Paul Szyszka is interested in how the insect olfactory system copes with such complicated stimuli. He uses behavioral experiments to probe the limits of insects’ olfaction and to test how olfactory performance depends on experience. He uses electrophysiological and optical imaging methods to investigate the neuronal mechanisms of odor perception and experience-dependent plasticity.