The Neurobiology of Drosophila Mating Behaviors

The behavioral rituals that animals perform as they seek out their mates provide ideal models to study the neural control of complex goal-directed behaviors. They are innate, robust, and sexually dimorphic, reflecting the activation of genetically-determined sexually-dimorphic circuits. I will present our current understanding of the neural circuits that control mating in Drosophila, which include sexually-dimorphic components for sensory integration, decision-making, and action selection.