WI·FLY

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Research updates

New observations and analyses from the Wi-Fly research programme.

September 2026

Xenon reversibly suppresses background coordination in isolated flies

Flies housed individually in opaque wells normally show weak, shared fluctuations in movement even between the light-dark startles. To test whether this coordination depends on the animals' physiological state, we exposed four plates to 50% xenon for 20 minutes. Background coordination fell in every plate and recovered rapidly when air was restored (paired p = 0.0003). Xenon also reduced movement, but the two effects separated during recovery: locomotion returned only to 62% of its pre-exposure level, whereas coordination rebounded to 123%. The reversible loss and return of coordination therefore cannot be explained simply by changes in overall activity. This provides a pharmacological test of the phenomenon while leaving the physical channel between isolated wells unresolved.

Movement and pairwise coordination across air, xenon exposure and recovery periods in four 48-well plates
Figure. Xenon reversibly suppresses background pairwise coordination. Four 48-well plates were recorded for 60 min, with 50% Xe from 20 to 40 min (blue shading) and air before and after. Top: plate-mean distance moved per well per second; faint lines show 1 s data and solid lines show a 1/120 Hz low-pass filter. Bottom: mean pairwise correlation phi in 2 min blocks; faint lines show individual plates and dark red shows the four-plate mean. The inset summarises each plate during air 1, xenon and air 2 (mean ± SEM; paired p = 0.0003).