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Portrait photo of Vanessa Ruta
Portrait photo of Vanessa Ruta

Awardee

Vanessa Ruta, Ph.D.

Investigator, Simons Collaboration on the Global Brain

Affiliations
  • Principal Investigator, Laboratory of Neurophysiology and Behavior, Rockefeller University
  • Gabrielle H. Reem and Herbert J. Kayden Professor Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Publications

Context-dependent representations of movement in Drosophila dopaminergic reinforcement pathways

Nat Neurosci, November 9, 2021

A Zolin, R Cohn, R Pang, AF Siliciano, A. Fairhall, and V. Ruta

Sexual arousal gates visual processing during Drosophila courtship

Nature, July 7, 2021

T Hindmarsh Sten, R Li, A Otopalik, and V. Ruta

Distinct Dopamine Receptor Pathways Underlie the Temporal Sensitivity of Associative Learning

Cell, June 20, 2019

A Handler, T Graham, R Cohn, I Morantte, AF Siliciano, J Zeng, et al.

Evolution of a central neural circuit underlies Drosophila mate preferences

Nature, July 11, 2018

Laura F. Seeholzer, Max Seppo, David L. Stern, and V. Ruta

Projects

A digital rendering of interconnected neurons glowing against a dark blue background.

Global Brain

Simons Collaboration
The representation of internal state in the fly brain

The representation of internal state in the fly brain

Funded Work

Featuring Vanessa Ruta

Some dopamine neurons (red) in the ventral tegmental area respond to reward, others to the animal’s position, speed or acceleration. Calcium activity, a proxy for neural activity, is highlighted in green.

Dopamine: Beyond the Rush of a Reward

Brain scan showing how both D. melanogaster (top) and D. simulans (bottom) have similar neural circuitry

Secret to Fruit Fly Attraction Traced to Subtle Electrical Changes

The axon of a Kenyon cell (left, blue) carries olfactory signals down the length of the lobe (gray). The dendrites of a single mushroom body output neuron (middle, green) are confined to one compartment of the lobe, the toe of the boot. Axons from roughly 15 dopaminergic neurons (right, magenta) target the same compartment as the dendrites of the output neuron.

Inner Workings of the Brain Explored at 2017 SCGB Annual Meeting

Events

Themes and Variations in Social Brain Circuits

Lecture

April 10, 2024

6–7 p.m. ET

Speaker

Vanessa Ruta

Portrait photo of Vanessa Ruta

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Simons Collaborations in Neuroscience unite leading scientists to tackle fundamental questions about brain function, focusing on areas newly opened by major advances.

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