Researchers from Oxford University have found that fruit flies “think” before they act.

The researchers observed that flies seemed to gather information before differentiating between ever closer concentrations of an odor. Thinking before acting has long been thought of as a sign of higher intelligence.

“Freedom of action from automatic impulses is considered a hallmark of cognition or intelligence,” posits Professor Gero Miesenböck. “What our findings show is that fruit flies have a surprising mental capacity that has previously been unrecognized.”

According to researchers, the gene FoxP is involved in the decision-making process in the fruit fly brain.

To examine their decision-making process, the researchers watched fruit flies differentiate between concentrations of an odor, having been trained to stay away from one concentration. When the odor concentrations were distinct, the flies executed rapid decisions. When the odor concentrations were similar, the flies spent more time making a decision.

Interestingly, the researchers discovered that mathematical models created to make sense of the mechanisms of decision making in humans also matched the behavior of fruit flies. They also found that fruit flies with mutations in FoxP spent more time trying to make decisions when odors were hard to differentiate.

“Before a decision is made, brain circuits collect information like a bucket collects water,” said lead author Dr. Shamik DasGupta. “Once the accumulated information has risen to a certain level, the decision is triggered.”

“When FoxP is defective, either the flow of information into the bucket is reduced to a trickle, or the bucket has sprung a leak,” he added.

The study’s findings are published in the journal Science.