Neuron Activity and Fly Songs (VIDEO)
Caption
The researchers are the first to determine the specific features of a male fruit fly mating song that prompt a female to potentially mate. By observing how female neurons responded to male songs (above), the researchers found that females respond to longer song "bouts," or segments, that are tens of seconds in length. Sensitivity to the longer song segments likely allows the female fruit fly to make a determination about a male's fitness based on his ability to consistently produce long song bouts. This is similar to how a person accumulates information over a period of time to make a decision.
Credit
Audio-video file by Jan Clemens, Princeton Neuroscience Institute
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