Insect Decision-Making
By Shannon B. Olsson, Pavan Kumar Kaushik
Combining virtual reality and fieldwork yields insights into the mind of the apple fly, teasing out how the brain translates information and patterns.
This Article From Issue
November-December 2021
Volume 109, Number 6
Page 368
The flies in our study flew to the same pattern of digital clouds again, to our amazement. We had placed these tiny insects into a digital world, a virtual reality that surrounded them and that was made of screens showing only images of grass, sky, and clouds. We had tethered them to fly in place in the center of this setup, and our system shifted the digital world around them in response to the beat and position of their wings, making it look to the flies as though they were moving.
QUICK TAKE
- Apple flies are a frequent subject of field studies, but controlled environments created using virtual reality can provide a deeper understanding of how their brains work.
- A virtual arena created for the flies presents visuals, wind, and odors in 360 degrees. The digital world can be moved around the flies in response to their wing movements.
- New data from the virtual reality studies provide insights into how the flies process stimuli and make decisions, which can in turn inform and advance further fieldwork.
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