Dr. Monika Scholz

We study how animals use information to make behavioral decisions. We use the foraging of the small roundworm C. elegans as a model for an ecologically relevant behavior. To successfully forage, the animal needs to combine sensory information obtained from its environment with information about its own behavioral state. We follow this information flow experimentally using behavioral assays, neural activity imaging, optogenetics and genetic perturbations. Ultimately, we want to understand how animals integrate multiple sources of information and how this drives their foraging strategy.