Fruit flies in the flight simulator
Memories of a fruit fly studied in the laboratory
The fruit fly can recognize patterns and remember them. Neuroscientists at the University of Wurzburg have now discovered where this process takes place in the brain and which nerve cells are involved in it.
Drosophila melanogaster has a visual memory. It recognizes patterns and can remember them by analyzing them on the basis of five different parameters. Like humans, fruit flies are able to recognize optical impressions even if they appear in a completely different place in the field of vision. Using genetically modified fruit fly strains, researchers at the Biocenter in Wurzburg, Germany, have now discovered the neuron groups involved in remembering two of these parameters. In the current ie of Nature (Vol. 439, no. 7076 from 2.2.2006) they report.