Neural and genetic control of path integration

Navigation is one of the most impressive feats of the natural world: Humpback whales travel from polar feeding grounds to specific locations in tropics for breeding; monarch butterflies fly across vast distances following specific migratory routes. Navigating animals often encounter environments devoid of prominent landmarks; a sailor lost in the Pacific or a desert ant foraging in the Sahara faces the same problem of knowing where they are going. How best to solve this problem without a map? One of the simplest ways of calculating where you are going is to use a compass to calculate the direction of the travel and an odometer to measure the travel distance. My work will focus on deciphering how a tiny insect brain uses a neural compass and an odometer to calculate where they are going, unveiling fundamental mechanisms through which our brain synchronises direction, movement and time to keep us on track.