Flies can memorise the position of objects even after being distracted.
What?
Fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster) can memorise the position of objects, even if they have disappeared from their field of vision in the meantime. A kind of "working memory" plays an important role in this special aspect of orientation behaviour.
How?
We track the position of a fly in an arena in real time and change the environment depending on the animal's behaviour. To do this, we make landmarks disappear or appear in a different place.
Why?
The detour experiment is suitable for investigating the orientation behaviour of flies. We can investigate to what extent and for how long the animals remember the position of objects and which areas of the brain are relevant in this process.
Publications
Analysis of a spatial orientation memory in Drosophila
Neuser K, Triphan T, Mronz M, Poeck B, Strauss R.
Nature. 2008 Jun 26;453(7199):1244-7.
DOI: 10.1038/nature07003