Neuroethology is the study of how nervous systems generate behaviour. We are interested in what animals can sense and how they do this. How do sharks detect prey, and how do insects find food? What are insects' perceptual limits in olfaction, and what patterns of neural activity are behaviourally relevant?
We are also interested in how animal brains control movements and behaviour. How do spiders run, and how do flies fly? Animal sensory systems and nervous system designs vary greatly in detail, but they all – including yours and mine – have the same basic design and use very similar molecules and cells. Animal diversity helps us to discover underlying principles of nervous system structure and function.
Honey bees use the fine-scale temporal structure of odour plumes to segregate mixed odours from different sources