Pavan Ramdya

We recorded the activity of neurons within this network during 2 hours of social interactions. Interestingly, as the animals became more sociable the baseline and locomotor-related activity greatly diminished in MBONs previously implicated in aversive learning.

However, single-housed animals can learn to be sociable after spending several hours with other flies, or more specifically, smelling other flies. Importantly, this shift in behavior seems to be tuned to conspecifics since flies never stop evading beetles, for example.

We found that if we isolate flies before they eclose, and keep them living alone, they’ll display a constellation of fearful reactions the first time they encounter other flies. Contrary to the sociable behaviors shown by flies housed in a group.

I'm thrilled to share this story! Flies tend to aggregate, as I’m sure you have experienced in your kitchen. They lay eggs around the same places and form clusters even in the absence of food. But, what happens when they meet other flies for the first time? ...