Fruit flies use stored spatial memories, not just reflexes, to navigate chaotic smell plumes
A team led by Vanessa Ruta at Rockefeller University has demonstrated that fruit flies navigate turbulent odor plumes using stored spatial memories rather than simple reflexes. By using a virtual reality treadmill, researchers showed that flies track the edges of smell plumes and remember their location even when the scent disappears. This memory-based strategy, encoded in specific brain regions, allows flies to efficiently locate sources despite chaotic airflow.
