London, May 30 (IANS) The mind of a fruit fly may not be too complex as researchers have now developed a laser system that can trigger dancing and singing responses in the flies — behaviour correlated with a persistent state of courtship.
In the experiment, this became obvious when males tried to mate with a ball of wax, which they circled and started vibrating their wings after stimulation with the laser beam, the study noted.
Dubbed “FlyMAD” (short for Fly Mind Altering Device), the system uses cameras to track fruit flies in flight and hit them with specially calibrated laser beams.
By applying light and heat within a certain range, researchers could alter particular neural pathways in the fly’s brain.
The flies are also genetically modified to be sensitive to these kinds of stimuli, Discovery News reported.
The study appeared in the journal Nature Methods.