Two recently published studies of fly behavior provide evidence for sophisticated sensory information processing in insect brains. A study of fruit flies (Drosophila) led by scientists from the University of Sheffield examined the processing of visual information in the brain.1 When attempting to understand information processing in brains, the paradigm has been that scientists, “Often rely on stationarity assumptions and reductionist behaviour or reductionist brain activity analyses.” However, this new research shows that these assumptions are too simplified, and that the processing is much more complex.
An important element that enables the enhanced processing involves microsaccades. In humans, these are small involuntary eye movements produced during attempted visual fixation. The eye movements facilitate focusing on objects. In insects such as flies, microsaccades have a similar basic function, but are also critical to other aspects of visual processing. As applied in flies, the theory of neural morphodynamics proposes that, “Rapid biomechanical movements and microstructural changes at the level of neurons and synapses enhance the speed and efficiency of sensory information processing by regulating neural information in a phasic manner.”2 This and other research has determined that the process of sensing is itself an active mechanism that uses the saccadic movements to enhance information sampling.
Benefits to Behavior
The effectiveness of this enhanced processing results in a number of benefits to behavior. It enables flies to perceive 2- and 3-dimensional patterns 4–10 times finer than would be achieved by the resolution limits of static eye vision; provides rapid vision that operates approximately 3 to 15 times faster than humans; enables the capture of 2-to-4-times more information in a given time compared with previous estimates; and enables hyperacute stereovision. The latter challenges the historical reductionist assumption that small insect eyes are optically too coarse and closely positioned to support stereovision. An observation in the paper is that, “These findings and new ideas about fast and complex motion-based interactions in visual information sampling and processing challenge the traditional view that insect brains rely on low-resolution input from static eyes for high-order computations.”3 One conclusion is that as a result of the enhanced signal processing, “Perception becomes more accurate, and behavioural responses to dynamic stimuli are prompt…and enhance cognitive abilities and decision-making capabilities.”4
Enhanced Visual Information Processing
Another study of housefly (Musca domestica) behavior, also led by University of Sheffield scientists, provides further evidence for enhanced visual information processing.5 The research provided additional details on the mechanisms that enable the enhanced behaviors. Animals such as flies that move at relatively high speeds had been assumed to experience “motion blur” and thus temporarily result in blinding. Among the findings of the research are that housefly brains can transmit information at rates exceeding 4,000 bits per second and operate at visual bandwidths approaching 1,000 Hz, which is far beyond the rate necessary to eliminate motion blur. One of the conclusions from the research shows that the housefly’s “Morphodynamic neural superposition system appears explicitly tuned to encode fast saccadic inputs with exceptional efficiency and minimal noise, far surpassing conventional expectations.”6
Co-author Mikko Juusola comments that the result, “Shows that vision is not limited by the speed at which insect brains process information. Instead, the brain automatically speeds up to keep pace with the body, cutting out lag and making sure information flows as quickly as possible.”7 The authors of the paper comment that, “Such synchronised, minimal-delay processing — from sensing to decision-making — is likely essential for supporting complex behaviours in real time.”8
That begs the question of the origin of this design. The authors of the fruit fly paper assert that it is an expected result of Darwinian evolution, writing, “Faster and more efficient information processing should enhance cognitive abilities and decision-making capabilities. In this light, for evolution to select neural morphodynamics as a pathway for optimising the brains would be a no-brainer.”9 Implementation of the enhanced processing requires multiple coordinated complex genetic changes in sensor systems, motor circuits, and neural networks. Other research has shown that fly brains are extremely complex.10 Coordination of these independent changes is extremely unlikely to occur through a random process, and therefore is not a “no-brainer.” Conversely it gives the appearance of being the result of engineering design, which implies an intelligent agent.
Notes
- Mikko Juusola, et al., “Theory of morphodynamic information processing: Linking sensing to behaviour,” Vision Research 227 (2025) 108537.
- Juusola, et al., “Theory of morphodynamic information processing: Linking sensing to behaviour.”
- Juusola, et al., “Theory of morphodynamic information processing: Linking sensing to behaviour.”
- Juusola, et al., “Theory of morphodynamic information processing: Linking sensing to behaviour.”
- Neveen Mansour, et al., “Synaptic high-frequency jumping synchronises vision to high-speed behaviour,” Nature Communications (2026) 17: 3863.
- Mansour, et al,, “Synaptic high-frequency jumping synchronises vision to high-speed behaviour.”
- Robert Langley, “Tiny insect brain discovery offers a blueprint for faster and more efficient AI and robots,” University of Sheffield News, 5 May 2026.
- Mansour, et al., “Synaptic high-frequency jumping synchronises vision to high-speed behaviour.”
- Juusola, et al., “Theory of morphodynamic information processing: Linking sensing to behaviour.”
- Eric Cassell, “Design, Engineering, Specified Complexity: Appreciating the Fruit Fly Brain,” Science and Culture Today, November 14, 2024.