This episode features Leslie’s interview with Rudy who studies how the encoding of visual stimuli is affected by behavioral context

In science, we often follow the well-trodden path – we leverage skills we have already mastered, play to our lab’s strengths, and focus on research topics with a developed background. Dr. Rudy Behnia prefers the road less traveled; she prefers delving into newly formed fields using techniques far out of her comfort zone. She credits her scientific career in part to this willingness to take risks. As an Assistant Professor at Columbia University, Rudy studies sensory perception in flies to understand how the brain integrates visual information differently based on surrounding behavioral context, such as attentional or motivational state.