Fruit fly trapped in 'holodeck' fooled by the illusion

Sandrine Ceurstemont, editor, New Scientist TV

Virtual worlds don't just elicit real life behaviour from humans. Flies can also be tricked, as shown by a holodeck set-up developed by Andrew Straw, now at the Research Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP) in Austria, and colleagues.

In this video, a rectangular arena is made to look like a cylindrical 3D tunnel using a virtual reality projection. Five cameras track the fly so that its position can be fed to computer gaming technology which constantly updates the imagery based on its motion. The experiment shows that the fly behaves as if the display is real, staying within the limits of the cylinder and even trying to land on a virtual wall.

So far, the system has confirmed that our understanding of the way flies respond to what they see is correct. But now the researchers plan to use the technology to test flies with different genetic backgrounds. "Simply changing software allows us to modify visual components to test which visual stimuli are important for different behaviours," says Straw. "On the other hand, we can also use the display to direct flies where we want them." In the new study, they hope to identify the neurons involved in different behaviours, like wall avoidance and attraction to landmarks.

To find out more about what virtual reality for animals is uncovering about the brain, read our full news story: "Virtual reality for animals reveals secrets of working brain".

If you enjoyed this post, watch a mouse navigate a virtual reality display or check out a device that could trigger our five senses to create an ultra-realistic virtual experience.

Source: http://feeds.newscientist.com/c/749/f/10897/s/1d7fcbcf/l/0L0Snewscientist0N0Cblogs0Cnstv0C20A120C0A30Cfruit0Efly0Etrapped0Ein0Eholodeck0Efooled0Eby0Ethe0Eillusion0Bhtml0DDCMP0FOTC0Erss0Gnsref0Fonline0Enews/story01.htm

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