# behav: the smart sleep of flies (Drosophila melanogaster)

<< Flies that cannot take to the air respond by sleeping more as they learn to adapt to their flightlessness, (..) The findings, (..) suggest that sleep may be an evolutionary tool that helps animals adapt to challenging new situations. >>

<< Fruit flies' sleep looks a lot like people's. Baby flies need a lot of sleep, but as they get older, their need for sleep diminishes. Flies become more alert with caffeine and drowsier with antihistamines. And if you keep a fly awake one day, it will sleep more the next. >>

Flies sleep when need arises to adapt to new situations. Washington University School of Medicine. May 8, 2020.

https://phys.org/news/2020-05-flies-situations.html

K. Melnattur, B. Zhang, P. J. Shaw. Disrupting flight increases sleep and identifies a novel sleep-promoting pathway in Drosophila. Sci Adv 

Vol. 6, no. 19, eaaz2166. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.aaz2166. May 8, 2020.

https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/6/19/eaaz2166.full

Also

keyword 'Drosophila' in FonT

https://flashontrack.blogspot.com/search?q=drosophila

keyword 'mosca' in Notes (quasi- stochastic poetry)

https://inkpi.blogspot.com/search?q=mosca

# behav: persistent neuronal firing during flight in flies, like a pulsating gambler who has to decide quickly

<< A general principle of sensory systems is that they adapt to prolonged stimulation by reducing their response over time. >>

<< as opposed to most sensory and visual neurons, and in particular to the motion vision sensitive neurons in the brains of both flies and mammals, the descending neurons show little adaption during stimulus motion. (..) the optic-flow-sensitive descending neurons display persistent firing, or an after-effect, following the cessation of visual stimulation, consistent with the lingering calcium signal hypothesis. >>

AA results << show a combination of adaptation and persistent firing in the neurons that project to the thoracic ganglia and thereby control behavioral output. >>

Sarah Nicholas, Karin Nordstrom. Persistent Firing and Adaptation in Optic-Flow-Sensitive Descending Neurons. Curr Biol. doi: 10.1016/ j.cub.2020.05.019. May 28, 2020.

https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(20)30658-8

Revealing how flies make decisions on the fly to survive. Flinders University. May 28, 2020

https://phys.org/news/2020-05-revealing-flies-decisions-survive.html

Also

the flexible mental maps of flies. FonT. Nov 21, 2019. 

https://flashontrack.blogspot.com/2019/11/brain-flexible-mental-maps-of-flies.html

<< Considerando invece l' immagine classica della "mosca nella bottiglia", >>  in: 2066 - voli a casaccio. Notes. (quasi-stochastic poetry). Oct 01, 2006.

https://inkpi.blogspot.com/2006/10/2066-voli-casaccio.html

# brain: flies, mice and humans, comparable behaviors for balance and motor control

<< Comparative developmental genetics indicate insect and mammalian forebrains form and function in comparable ways. However, these data are open to opposing interpretations that advocate either a single origin of the brain and its adaptive modification during animal evolution; or multiple, independent origins of the many different brains present in extant Bilateria. Here, (AA) describe conserved regulatory elements that mediate the spatiotemporal expression of developmental control genes directing the formation and function of midbrain circuits in flies, mice, and humans. These circuits develop from corresponding midbrain-hindbrain boundary regions and regulate comparable behaviors for balance and motor control. (They) findings suggest that conserved regulatory mechanisms specify cephalic circuits for sensory integration and coordinated behavior common to all animals that possess a brain. >>

Jessika C. Bridi, Zoe N. Ludlow, et al. Ancestral regulatory mechanisms specify conserved midbrain circuitry in arthropods and vertebrates. PNAS. doi: 10.1073/ pnas.1918797117. Aug 3, 2020.

https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2020/07/31/1918797117  

Humans and flies employ very similar mechanisms for brain development and function. King's College London.  Aug 3, 2020.

https://phys.org/news/2020-08-humans-flies-similar-mechanisms-brain.html

Also

'mosca in bottiglia' in: 2066 - voli a casaccio. Notes. Oct 01, 2006.   (quasi-stochastic poetry)

https://inkpi.blogspot.com/2006/10/2066-voli-casaccio.html

Also

keyword 'flies' in FonT

https://flashontrack.blogspot.com/search?q=flies

# brain: the flexible mental maps of flies

<< In the Drosophila brain, 'compass'  neurons track the orientation of the body and head (the fly’s heading) during navigation >>

<<  a visual cue can evoke synaptic inhibition in compass neurons and that R (ring) neurons mediate this inhibition. Each compass neuron is inhibited only by specific visual cue positions, indicating that many potential connections from R neurons onto compass neurons are actually weak or silent. (..) the pattern of visually evoked inhibition can reorganize over minutes as the fly explores an altered virtual-reality environment. >>

Yvette E. Fisher, Jenny Lu, et al. Sensorimotor experience remaps visual input to a heading-direction network.  Nature. doi: 10.1038/s41586-019-1772-4. Nov 20, 2019. 

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-019-1772-4

To navigate, flies make flexible mental maps of the world. Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Nov 20, 2019.

https://m.phys.org/news/2019-11-flies-flexible-mental-world.html

Also

<<  Considerando invece l' immagine classica della "mosca nella bottiglia", >>  in: 2066 - voli a casaccio. Notes. Oct 01, 2006. 

https://inkpi.blogspot.com/2006/10/2066-voli-casaccio.html

# behav: cognitive maps to get out of trouble, a jumping behaviour could be a goal-directed behaviour (in guppies, Poecilia reticulata).

<< Spatial cognitive abilities allow individuals to remember the location of food patches, predator hide-outs, or shelters. Animals typically incorporate learnt spatial information or use external environmental cues to navigate their surroundings. A spectacular example of how some fishes move is through aerial jumping. >>️

<< what information such re-orientation behaviour during jumping is based on remains enigmatic. Here (AA) combine a lab and field experiment to test if guppies (Poecilia reticulata) incorporate learnt spatial information and external environmental cues (visual and auditory) to determine where to jump. >>

AA << show that in unfamiliar entrapments guppies direct their jumps by combining visual and auditory cues, while in familiar entrapments they use a cognitive map. (..) jumping behaviour is a goal-directed behaviour, guided by different sources of information and involving important spatial cognitive skills. >>️️

Hannah de Waele, Catarina Vila Pouca, et al. Jumping out of trouble: Evidence for a cognitive map in guppies (Poecilia reticulata).  bioRxiv. doi: 10.1101/ 2022.03.30.486400. Mar 30, 2022.

https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.03.30.486400v1

Also

Voli a casaccio. Notes (quasi-stochastic poetry). Oct 01, 2006. 

https://inkpi.blogspot.com/2006/10/2066-voli-casaccio.html

the flexible mental maps of flies. FonT. Nov 21, 2019. 

https://flashontrack.blogspot.com/2019/11/brain-flexible-mental-maps-of-flies.html

Keyword: behav, cognition, jumping behaviour, aerial jumping

# life: they used birds to think about and to predict the future.

<< People around the world and throughout history have used birds to think about and predict the future. >>

<< In the Kalahari, southern Africa, !Xõ hunters carefully watch the black-faced babblers after an antelope hunt for signs of where their wounded prey may be. >>

Felice Wyndham. How birds are used to reveal the future. Feb 26, 2020.

https://theconversation.com/how-birds-are-used-to-reveal-the-future-130844

Ethno-ornithology World Atlas

https://ewatlas.net/collection/birds-tell-people-things

Here are some examples ...

'journalists' birds ...

<< Hummingbirds can bring good or bad news. If someone flies nearby you have to say, "You're going to give me good news!" (It's a saying that comes from the Yshir).>>

https://ewatlas.net/digital-heritage/ti%C3%ADnta-polytmus-guainumbi

'ecologist / protester' birds ...

<< If this bird sings at night it warns that white people will be deforesting soon. >>

https://ewatlas.net/digital-heritage/guidob%C3%B3-leptotila-verreauxi

'climatologist' birds ...

<< If one has a gócoco in the house, and the bird digs for a dust bath, it means that the cold weather is coming. It indicates that the weather will be a very rainy and very cloudy weather, but if it sings loud it is warning that the sun will soon rise. >>

https://ewatlas.net/digital-heritage/g%C3%B3coco-chunga-burmeisteri

<< When this bird approaches the Ayoreo village or if you see it in a dive, the noise of its wings warns that a lot of rain will come soon; maybe floods. >>

https://ewatlas.net/digital-heritage/jaac%C3%B3-cairina-moschata

<< This bird announces rain: if it sings in the morning it will rain in the afternoon - she cries because she does not want her nest to get wet. This bird needs high woods and leaves of trees to eat. She is a young lady and she likes young people and always accompanies people every day. >>

https://ewatlas.net/digital-heritage/ngongo%C3%B3-crypturellus-undulatus

<< It may be a warning that if it burns there may be storms or strong winds. >>

https://ewatlas.net/digital-heritage/pi%C3%A1-vireo-olivaceus

<< It says "ti ti ti ti ti ti ti." Warn if the south wind that brings the cold will blow soon. >>

https://ewatlas.net/digital-heritage/totita-hemitriccus-margaritaceiventer-todirostrum-cinereum

Also

keyword 'bird' in FonT

https://flashontrack.blogspot.com/search?q=bird

# evol: Megalopta genalis, the bee that flies in the dark with dorsal landmark navigation

<< People -- who get lost easily in the extraordinary darkness of a tropical forest -- have much to learn from a bee that can find its way home in conditions 10 times dimmer than starlight. >>

AA << reveal that sweat bees (Megalopta genalis), find their way home based on patterns in the canopy overhead using dorsal vision. >>️️

<< For a human observer, the most obvious visual cues in the forest at night are gaps in the canopy when we look straight up because the sky is much brighter than the forest below, (..) We see a quite complex pattern of criss-crossing branches, but the bees'-eye-view is much less complex. They see broad blobs of light that vary in shape and position. We knew that ants could use canopy patterns to navigate as they walk through the forest, and we wondered if maybe bees were doing the same thing. >> Eric Warrant.

Dorsal navigation found in a flying insect. Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. Jun 17, 2021. 

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/06/210617101221.htm

Sandra Chaib, Marie Dacke, et al. 

Dorsal Landmark Navigation in a Neotropical Nocturnal Bee.  doi: 10.2139/ ssrn.3805162. Mar 15, 2021.

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3805162

# gst: drift motion of two-core spiral chimeras (grouped into 3 main classes, symmetrical, asymmetrical, and meandering spiral)

AA << consider a two-dimensional array of heterogeneous nonlocally coupled phase oscillators on a flat torus and study the bound states of two counter-rotating spiral chimeras, shortly two-core spiral chimeras, observed in this system. In contrast to other known spiral chimeras with motionless incoherent cores, the two-core spiral chimeras typically show a drift motion. Due to this drift, their incoherent cores become spatially modulated and develop specific fingerprint patterns of varying synchrony levels. >>

Numerical analysis of Ott-Antonsen equation allows << to reveal the stability region of different spiral chimeras, which (AA) group into three main classes—symmetric, asymmetric, and meandering spiral chimeras. >>️

Martin Bataille-Gonzalez, Marcel G. Clerc, Oleh E. Omel'chenko. Moving spiral wave chimeras. Phys. Rev. E 104, L022203 (Letter). Aug 20, 2021.

https://journals.aps.org/pre/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevE.104.L022203

Also (Ott-Antonsen equation)

<< Synchronization in Nature. 

Generic behavior involving a large  ensemble of nearly identical oscillators that are weakly coupled. 

- Cellular clocks in the brain.

- Pacemaker cells in the heart.

- Flashing fire flies.

- Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) treatment for  Parkinson’s. 

- Pedestrians on a bridge.

- Many more. 

>>

Steven  Strogatz

Thomas M. Antonsen Jr. and Edward Ott. Synchronization: What can a plasma physicis say about generic collective behavior? (Happy Birthday Nat!) (Presentation). In: Solved and Unsolved Problems In Plasma Physics. Symposium. Princeton, New Jersey. Mar 28-30, 2016. 

https://fisch-fest2016.pppl.gov/presentations/1-10-Antonsen.pdf