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The virtual reality stage was combined with in vivo fluorescent brain activity imaging to observe the neural dynamics of brain structures involved in learning and memory formation during conditioning
Source: Dhruv Grover, KIBM, UC San Diego
When fruit flies buzz around a bunch of bananas in our kitchen, they don't seem to have much in common with mammals
In a new study, researchers at UC San Diego's Caffrey Institute for Brain and Mind (KIBM) have found that the fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster) is more cognitively advanced than previously thought
Their multi-layered survey approach uncovered the fly's ability to focus, work memory and conscious awareness, a cognitive ability typically only tested in mammals
"Despite the lack of clear anatomical similarities, this study sheds light on our everyday cognitive function -- what we focus on and how to focus on it," said the study's senior author Ralph Greenspan, UC San Diego Division of Biological Sciences Professor, and Deputy Director of KIBM
To get to the heart of their new discovery, the researchers created an immersive virtual reality environment to test the fly's behavior with visual stimuli, combining the displayed images with an infrared laser as a reverse thermal stimulus
They tested two different conditionings, one in which the flies were given a visual stimulus that overlapped in time with heat (delayed conditioning), both ending at the same time; the other was a second tracking conditioning, in which display and elimination Wait 5 to 20 seconds after visual stimulation to transfer heat
The researchers also imaged the brain using a fluorescent molecule genetically engineered into brain cells to track calcium activity in real time
"This study shows that Drosophila is not only capable of this advanced form of tracking conditioning, but that it learns as easily as mammals and humans are distracted, and that the neural activity underlying these attentional and working memory processes in Drosophila is similar to that in Drosophila.
The scientists also identified an area in the fly brain where memories form and disappear—a region of an ellipsoid called the fly central complex, which corresponds to the cerebral cortex of the human brain
In addition, the team found that this learning and higher cognitive function requires the neurochemical dopamine
Researchers are currently studying the details of how attention is physiologically encoded in the brain
article title
Differential mechanisms underlie trace and delay conditioning in Drosophila
