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Lasers used to write false memories onto the fruit fly brain

Brain and Behavior neurophilosophy | October 20, 2009

THE humble fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster) has the ability to learn and remember, and to make predictions about the outcome of its behaviours on the basis of past experience. Compared to a human brain, that of the fruit fly  is relatively simple, containing approximately 250,000 cells. Even so, little is known about the anatomical basis of memory formation. The neural circuitry underlying memories in these insects has now been dissected. In an elegant new study published in the journal Cell,  researchers from the University of Oxford show that aversive memories are dependent on a tiny…