Complexity Digest 2004.15 - 13

12-Apr-2004

Fruit Fly Courtship Puts Neurons to Work, Science Now Bookmark and Share

Excerpts:
In male fruit flies, this region of the brain, called the lateral protocerebrum, is intimately involved in courtship.
CREDIT: R. GREENSPAN
Turning certain neurons on or off in fly brains creates wildly erotic or sexually withdrawn animals, a new study shows. The findings point to new players in a complex circuit activated in the fly brain during courtship.

(...) selectively switched neurons on and off in adult male flies. (...) Upping the activity of neurons in one region of the brain, they found, made flies court like crazy, while stifling nerve cell activity in the same brain zone left males disinterested.