Behbahani, A. H. | bioRxiv Science

bioRxiv2021

LIFE AND WORK OF RESEARCHERS TRAPPED IN THE COVID-19PANDEMIC VICIOUS CYCLE

AO_SCPLOWBSTRACTC_SCPLOWCOVID-19 has disrupted researchers work and posed challenges to their life routines. We have surveyed 740 researchers of which 66% experienced a decrease in productivity, 50% indicated increased workload, and 66% reported they have been feeling internal pressure to make progress. Those whose research required physical presence in a lab or the field experienced considerable disruption and productivity decrease. About 82% of this group will try to permanently reduce their work dependency on physical presence. Parents and those taking care of vulnerable dependents have been spending less time on research due to their role conflict. We further observed a gender gap in the overall disruption consequences; more female researchers have been experiencing a reduction in productivity and external pressure to make progress. The results of this study can help institution leaders and policymakers better understand the pandemics challenges for the research community and motivate appropriate measures to instill long-term solutions.

scientific communication and education↗

bioRxiv2021

Drosophila local search emerges from iterative odometry of consecutive run lengths.

The ability to keep track of ones location in space is a critical behavior for animals navigating to and from a salient location, and its computational basis is now beginning to be unraveled. Here, we tracked flies in a ring-shaped channel as they executed bouts of search triggered by optogenetic activation of sugar receptors. Unlike experiments in open field arenas, which produce highly tortuous search trajectories, our geometrically constrained paradigm enabled us to monitor flies decisions to move toward or away from the fictive food. Our results suggest that flies use path integration to remember the location of a food site even after it has disappeared, and that flies can remember the location of a former food site even after walking around the arena one or more times. To determine the behavioral algorithms underlying Drosophila search, we developed multiple state transition models and found that flies likely accomplish path integration by combining odometry and compass navigation to keep track of their position relative to the fictive food. Our results indicate that whereas flies re-zero their path integrator at food when only one feeding site is present, they adjust their path integrator to a central location between sites when experiencing food at two or more locations. Together, this work provides a simple experimental paradigm and theoretical framework to advance investigations of the neural basis of path integration.

neuroscience↗