Fruit flies' visual navigation tactics differ by environment

Fruit flies use vision to head toward interesting things, but also to stay steady during flight. To accomplish this, the eyes need to fixate on the visual background while noticing objects that might indicate food or danger. Using a device that lets flies interact with a virtual environment, biologists have discovered that Mojave Desert fruit flies fixate on an object for balance and stability while also orienting toward it as an interesting resource, while common urban flies fixate on the background but move toward the object using rapid glances. Fruit flies are often used in experiments probing visual perception and processing. The finding that not all species of fruit fly navigate their environment the same way expands the possibilities for what scientists can learn.

Fruit flies use vision to head toward interesting things, but also to stay steady during flight. To accomplish this, the eyes need to fixate on the visual background while noticing objects that might indicate food or danger. Using a device that lets flies interact with a virtual environment, biologists have discovered that Mojave Desert fruit flies fixate on an object for balance and stability while also orienting toward it as an interesting resource, while common urban flies fixate on the background but move toward the object using rapid glances. Fruit flies are often used in experiments probing visual perception and processing. The finding that not all species of fruit fly navigate their environment the same way expands the possibilities for what scientists can learn.

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