Aielle Duhaime-Ross
The Verge
March 3, 2014
In the experiment, turning on FlyMAD caused a fly to suddenly “court” the closest object in its vicinity — in this case, a ball of wax — by circling it and vibrating its wings. The resulting behavioral modification was so strong that it persisted for about 15 minutes after the laser was turned off. This technique resembles previous attempts to control mouse neurons, and therefore mice themselves, using light. But the light method, called optogenetics, isn’t suitable for flies because light can’t penetrate exoskeletons, and a fly’s head is too small to accommodate the type of fibre-optic cables that scientists implant in mouse brains.
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