Fruit flies walking on miniature treadmills are helping scientists learn how the nervous system enables animals to move in an unpredictable and complex world.
Insights from using these fruit fly-sized treadmills were reported Aug. 30 in Current Biology, a Cell Press journal. Several videos of the flies running on the treadmills are available for viewing on the online research paper. The lead author is Brandon G. Pratt, a recent physiology and biophysics Ph.D. graduate of the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle and a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow.
