Ilona Grunwald Kadow How Do Behavioral Context and Internal State Influence Sensory Perception and Behavior?

Ilona Grunwald Kadow is Assistant Professor at the School of Life Sciences Weihenstephan, Technical University Munich (TUM). After a position as post-doctoral fellow at the University of California, Los Angeles, she set up her own research group at the Max Planck Institute for Neurobiology where she became a Max Planck research group leader. Grunwald Kadow investigates the neuronal circuits of chemosensory processing and decision-making. She has received multiple awards, among them the EMBO Young Investigator Award in 2012.

Area of Research

Neurobiology

since 2017

Assistant Professor

Technical University of Munich (Technische Universität München)

TUM School of Life Sciences Weihenstephan (Neural Circuits and Metabolism)

2008-2016

Research Group Leader

Max Planck Society

Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology

2006-2008

Postdoctoral Fellow

Max Planck Society

Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology

2003-2005

Postdoctoral Fellow

University of California, Los Angeles

2002

PhD

Heidelberg University (Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg)

1999

Studies of Biology

University of Göttingen (Georg-August-Universität Göttingen)

Prizes

- EMBO Young Investigator (2012)

- Human Frontiers Science Organization Career Development Award (2008)

- Otto-Hahn-Medal of the Max-Planck-Society (2002)

Fellowships

- Emmy Noether Fellow of the German Research Foundation (2008)

- ERC Starting Grant (2015)

- Boehringer Ingelheim Exploration Grant (2013)

Behavior is flexible and we can adapt it according to certain needs or particular contexts. ILONA GRUNWALD KADOW and her team are interested in the underlying neural mechanisms in the brain and also the genes that allow us to exhibit flexible behavior. As Grunwald Kadow explains in this video, they used fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster) and genetic methods in their experiments. Their findings suggest that internal state and context indeed change the way sensory information is processed at different levels in the brain. This combination of sensory changes and higher brain changes seems to be really effective in changing the fly’s behavior and allows flexibility. This appears to be a general mechanism that may also explain why human behavior is flexible.

LT Video Publication DOI: https://doi.org/10.21036/LTPUB10456

Ionotropic Chemosensory Receptors Mediate the Taste and Smell of Polyamines

  • Ashiq Hussain, Mo Zhang, Habibe K. Üçpunar, Thomas Svensson, Elsa Qillery, Nicolas Gompel, Rickard Ignell and Ilona C. Grunwald Kadow
  • PLOS Biology
  • Published in 2016
Get Full Access
Ashiq Hussain, Mo Zhang, Habibe K. Üçpunar, Thomas Svensson, Elsa Qillery, Nicolas Gompel, Rickard Ignell and Ilona C. Grunwald Kadow. "Ionotropic Chemosensory Receptors Mediate the Taste and Smell of Polyamines." PLOS Biology 14, 5 (2016): e1002454.

Neuropeptides Modulate Female Chemosensory Processing Upon Mating in Drosophila

  • A. Hussain, H. K. Üçpunar, M. Zhang, L. F. Loschek and I. C. Grunwal Kadow
  • PLOS Biology
  • Published in 2016
Get Full Access
A. Hussain, H. K. Üçpunar, M. Zhang, L. F. Loschek and I. C. Grunwal Kadow. "Neuropeptides Modulate Female Chemosensory Processing Upon Mating in Drosophila." PLOS Biology 14 (2016): e1002455.

A Higher Brain Circuit for Immediate Integration of Conflicting Sensory Information in Drosophila

  • L. Lewis, K. P. Siju, A. B. Friedrich, A. J. B. Bulteel, G. M. Rubin and I. C. Grunwal Kadow
  • Current Biology
  • Published in 2015
Get Full Access
L. Lewis, K. P. Siju, A. B. Friedrich, A. J. B. Bulteel, G. M. Rubin and I. C. Grunwal Kadow. "A Higher Brain Circuit for Immediate Integration of Conflicting Sensory Information in Drosophila." Current Biology 25, 17 (2015): 2203-14.