Sleep contributes to preference for novel food odours in Drosophila melanogaster

Background

Sleep is known to support learning and memory, and losing sleep impairs odor memory in fruit flies. Whether sleep also shapes everyday choices — like which food smell to approach — had not been tested.

What I did

As a high-school visiting researcher (JST Global Science Campus, Shizuoka University), I designed the study and built the equipment: a rotator that disturbs sleep at night, a two-choice odor box, and an infrared activity monitor.

What I found

Flies disturbed at night preferred apple cider vinegar over broth, while undisturbed flies and flies disturbed in the daytime showed a much weaker preference. Flies reared on one odor preferred that odor more strongly after sleep loss — so sleep deprivation seems to reduce interest in new odors and increase attachment to familiar ones. The work was published in Scientific Reports and presented at the Animal Behavior Society meeting.