Visual orientation in a complex environment requires a memory for targets' spatial position, in case they become temporarily out of sight, a faculty known as 'spatial working memory' in vertebrates. Use of a virtual-reality arena to present visual targets to walking fruit flies shows that insects share the faculty. Cell-specific gene rescue in learning mutants, ablation of brain areas and neuron-specific silencing experiments revealed that a distinct subset of neurons in the central brain is required for a spatial working memory in flies.
- Kirsa Neuser
- Tilman Triphan
- Roland Strauss
