Order in Spontaneous Behavior - Presentation

Final assignment of the course: "Neuroethology".

Here, I investigated a paper about the spontaneous flight behavior of tethered Drosophila fruit flies. The paper tested whether variability arises from random noise or intrinsic neural mechanisms. Using torque spike measurements and controlled environments, they analyzed inter‑spike intervals and applied computational methods to assess randomness. The results revealed that behavioral variability is not purely stochastic but instead reflects nonlinear, endogenous processes, producing fractal patterns such as Lévy flights. The conclusion was that even simple brains generate structured variability, challenging deterministic input‑output models and highlighting the adaptive role of intrinsic spontaneity.