{"683839":{"#nid":"683839","#data":{"type":"event","title":"PhD Defense by Leo Wood","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EIn partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDoctor of Philosophy in Quantitative Biosciences\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIn the\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ESchool of Physics\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ELeo Wood\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWill defend his dissertation\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ETemporal Precision and Neural Constraints in the Hawkmoth Flight Motor System\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ETuesday August 19th, 2025\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAt 9:30am EDT\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003Cstrong\u003EThesis Advisor:\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ESimon Sponberg, Ph.D.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ESchool of Biological Sciences\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EGeorgia Institute of Technology\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ECommittee Members:\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EYoung-Hui Chang, Ph.D.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ESchool of Biological Sciences\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EGeorgia Institute of Technology\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHannah Choi, Ph.D.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ESchool of Mathematics\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EGeorgia Institute of Technology\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EJeffrey Markowitz, Ph.D.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDept. of Biomedical Engineering\u003Cbr\u003EGeorgia Institute of Technology\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBradley H. Dickerson, Ph.D.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EPrinceton Neuroscience Institute\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EABSTRACT: Flying insects achieve remarkable feats (70 km\/hr flight speeds, navigating multi-day migrations, and executing precise aerial maneuvers) despite operating under extreme neural and mechanical constraints. With brains containing only thousands to millions of neurons, insects must transform diverse sensory information into coordinated motor programs that control flight muscles with sub-millisecond precision at frequencies up to hundreds of times per second. This thesis investigates how large synchronous insects, particularly hawkmoths such as \u003Cem\u003EManduca sexta\u003C\/em\u003E, achieve agile, robust flight despite severe physiological constraints such as limited neural bandwidth between the brain and body, and the need for millisecond-scale precision in motor output. To that end, we address four critical unknowns: (1) The functional significance of motor precision and coordination in individual muscles, (2) The spatial and temporal bottlenecks imposed by the neck connective, (3) The temporal precision of motor information in descending neurons, and (4) How motor control strategies scale across wingbeat frequencies in different species. Through techniques such as precise motor program manipulation, the first complete nanometer-scale reconstruction of the hawkmoth neck connective, simultaneous multielectrode recordings of descending neurons and the motor program, and comparative analysis across 13 species spanning a 7-fold wingbeat frequency range, this work reveals fundamental principles governing how neural constraints shape the architecture and precision of flight control across scales. The findings demonstrate that temporal precision and coordination are not merely correlated features but functionally interdependent aspects of motor control, with implications for understanding how biological systems achieve complex behaviors under severe computational and physical constraints.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ETemporal Precision and Neural Constraints in the Hawkmoth Flight Motor System\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Temporal Precision and Neural Constraints in the Hawkmoth Flight Motor System"}],"uid":"27707","created_gmt":"2025-08-15 13:29:50","changed_gmt":"2025-08-15 13:39:14","author":"Tatianna Richardson","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","field_event_time":{"event_time_start":"2025-08-19T09:30:00-04:00","event_time_end":"2025-08-19T11:30:00-04:00","event_time_end_last":"2025-08-19T11:30:00-04:00","gmt_time_start":"2025-08-19 13:30:00","gmt_time_end":"2025-08-19 15:30:00","gmt_time_end_last":"2025-08-19 15:30:00","rrule":null,"timezone":"America\/New_York"},"location":"Zoom available Upon Request","extras":[],"groups":[{"id":"221981","name":"Graduate Studies"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[{"id":"100811","name":"Phd Defense"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[{"id":"1788","name":"Other\/Miscellaneous"}],"invited_audience":[{"id":"78771","name":"Public"}],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}