Self-generated cues and learned landmarks support spatial learning in Drosophila

Drosophila can return to initially unmarked goal locations by combining learned olfactory cues with self-motion information in feature-poor arenas.

• Why it matters: Visual landmarks are well studied, but how animals exploit non-visual cues for spatial learning is unclear, especially when external cues are absent.
• What they did: Flies were tested in feature-poor arenas where they use self-deposited scents near the rewarded goal plus self-motion cues, requiring the mushroom body and PFN neurons; external olfactory landmarks were also tested.
• The result: External olfactory landmarks away from the goal improved performance by being assigned negative value via the mushroom body, and wild-caught strain comparisons plus transcriptomics suggest genetically separable learning capacities across sensory contexts.

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