Fruit flies found to “think” before they act

In experiments in which the insects had to tell apart ever more similar concentrations of an odour, researchers found that the flies don’t act instinctively or impulsively, but seem to accumulate information before acting. That has been considered a sign of higher intelligence.  The re­search­ers al­so found that a gene called FoxP, ac­tive in a small set of brain cells, facili­tates the choos­ing.