Touching the Right Nerve

TL;DRAbstract

De Ruyter from the University of Groningen in the Netherlands has been studying nervous system of blowflies. These insects have extremely sophisticated visual and tactile perception that is much more sophisticated than our own. De Ruyter placed a tiny tungsten probe into the fly’s head, near one of its motion-sensitive neurons to understand motion control system. With the necessary second probe that acts as a ground (and allows for a current), a nearby oscilloscope feeds the air with an audible indication of voltage. When de Ruyter runs his hand across the fly’s field of vision, the oscilloscope’s output becomes loud and continuous, like old radio static. Davidowitz illustrated how sophisticated these sensory systems are and, therefore, why they would be studied in order to model sense and control systems. Roaches run—when they can—along a wall, with one antenna touching that wall for positioning information. This system checks, feeds information, and makes the control corrections for

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