Oxford Centre for Neural Circuits and Behaviour.

A team of neuroscientists is building a centre to decode the biological circuits that turn sensory information into purposeful behaviour. The problem is fundamental: we do not understand how the brain’s neural networks compute decisions and actions. Current tools cannot easily trace the flow of information through living circuits or test what happens when those circuits are pushed beyond normal limits. The researchers will focus on the fruit fly *Drosophila melanogaster*, an organism that allows precise genetic control over individual neurons, and will develop new genetic technologies to map and manipulate those circuits. Parallel work in vertebrates will test whether the same principles hold in more complex brains. This is curiosity-driven fundamental science. There is no immediate clinical or commercial application. But understanding how neural circuits encode adaptive behaviour could eventually reshape treatments for brain disorders where those circuits go awry—such as addiction, Parkinson’s disease, or autism—and could inspire new architectures for artificial intelligence systems that learn and decide like biological brains. Past work on simple model organisms has repeatedly yielded unexpected insights into human biology.