Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Experiment Videos

Order in spontaneous behavior.

Alexander Maye1, Chih-Hao Hsieh, George Sugihara

  • 1Universitätsklinikum Hamburg-Eppendorf, Zentrum für Experimentelle Medizin, Institut für Neurophysiologie und Pathophysiologie, Hamburg, Germany.

Plos One
|May 17, 2007
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Related Concept Videos

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

Warming and Species Richness Weaken Eco-Phenotypic Feedback Loop in Long-Term Natural Ecosystems.

Ecology letters·2026
Same author

Quantifying the effects of response diversity dynamics on ecosystem stability.

Nature communications·2026
Same author

Existence of Causation without Correlation in Transcriptional Networks.

bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology·2026
Same author

Best practices for moving from correlation to causation in ecological research.

Nature communications·2026
Same author

Biodiversity effects on ecological stability through ecosystem-level feedback.

Ecology·2026
Same author

Oscillatory multi-timescale mechanisms underlying audiovisual sequence prediction.

Imaging neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.)·2026
Same journal

Invaders taking over-Mollusc faunal change in volcanic barrier lakes of the Albertine Rift biodiversity hotspot.

PloS one·2026
Same journal

AI-driven molecular diversification and ligand-based optimization of macitentan derivatives targeting VEGFR1 and endothelin signaling pathways.

PloS one·2026
Same journal

Performance patterns and records in the world aquatics masters championships: Where do the most frequently represented nations among the top-ten masters swimmers come from?

PloS one·2026
Same journal

Modeling diurnal Temperature-Rainfall relationships under multicollinearity using PLS-SEM: A case study of Ghana.

PloS one·2026
Same journal

Organizational culture, social capital, and emergency capacity in primary healthcare institutions: A cross-sectional structural equation modeling study comparing ordinary and older communities.

PloS one·2026
Same journal

Impact of kidney function on the metabolome in the general population.

PloS one·2026
See all related articles

Fruit fly behavior exhibits fractal patterns, not random noise, suggesting an intrinsic, adaptive indeterminacy in brain function. This finding has implications for understanding neural mechanisms and developing realistic autonomous agents.

Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Animal Behavior
  • Complex Systems

Background:

  • Brains are typically viewed as deterministic input-output systems.
  • Behavioral variability, even with identical sensory input, challenges this view.
  • The source of this variability—random noise versus intrinsic indeterminacy—is a key question in neuroscience.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the nature of behavioral variability in brain function.
  • To determine if spontaneous behavior arises from random noise or an inherent adaptive mechanism.
  • To explore the implications for models of brain function and artificial intelligence.

Main Methods:

  • Analysis of spontaneous flight maneuvers in tethered Drosophila fruit flies.
  • Characterization of the temporal structure of flight patterns.

Related Experiment Videos

  • Investigation of endogenous behavior generation in the fly's neural circuits.

    • Main Results:

    • Behavioral variability was found to have a fractal order, resembling Lévy flights, not random noise.
    • These Lévy-like patterns are evolutionarily conserved and can be generated endogenously by Drosophila.
    • Fly brain circuits operate as nonlinear systems with unstable dynamics far from equilibrium.

    Conclusions:

    • Spontaneous animal behavior may be characterized by intrinsic, adaptive indeterminacy rather than extrinsic random noise.
    • Evolutionarily conserved, endogenous behavior patterns suggest general neural mechanisms.
    • Realistic models of brain function and autonomous agents require nonlinear, behavior-initiating mechanisms.