My long-term research goal is to discover general principles of how nervous systems produce and control complex adaptive behaviours. Attaining this goal requires a comprehensive approach to investigating interactions between an animal's external environment and its nervous system. To address this issue I study behavioural and neurophysiological aspects of adaptive insect flight. I use model systems in which there is a strong background of behavioural and physiological knowledge upon which to build. These models include collision avoidance in locusts and odour-guided flight of the hawkmoth, Manduca sexta. My research utilizes newly developed approaches that permit, for the first time, direct correlations between aspects of an insect's environment and flight behaviour as well as ensemble activity within the CNS. These approaches incorporate a virtual reality-based insect flight simulator of my own design in conjunction with state of the art multi-neuronal recording techniques from the insect's CNS. To meet my long-term goal my research addresses three specific objectives.

1: To describe the specific components of multi-modal sensory stimuli that evoke adaptive flight behaviours in model insect species.

2: To determine how relevant multi-modal sensory information is encoded into patterns of premotor neural activity during adaptive flight behaviours.

3: To identify common principles of adaptive insect flight behaviour by comparing behavioural and neurophysiological control mechanisms between different insect species.