好奇心被定義為一種探索和尋求新奇事物的內在動機，同時還是一種重要但尚未被充分研究的動機，對動物來說更是如此。現有研究主要聚焦在動物如何因應外部刺激和潛在獎勵而非受到內在好奇心的驅動進行探索行為。這些研究往往忽略了因運動障礙而在物理上阻礙探索的情況，可能無法完全反映動物與新奇事物互動的內在動機。在這篇論文中，我們開發出一種行為分析方式：通過測量黑腹果蠅（Drosophila melanogaster）進入新環境的意願來評估由好奇心驅動的探索行為。藉由這種分析方法，我們發現雄性果蠅表現出比雌性更高水平的好奇心驅動探索行為，並且觀察到這種行為在雄性果蠅中與年齡呈正相關；我們還發現視覺線索對該行為的影響有限。除此之外，通過UAS/GAL4系統，我們發現多巴胺神經元與好奇心驅動的探索行為之間可能存在關聯性。總體來說：我們的研究結果展示了不同條件如何影響好奇心驅動的探索行為，並突出了特定神經傳導物質的潛在作用。我們希望這一分析方法能促進對果蠅探索行為和好奇心驅動行為的深入理解，並為更廣泛地研究動物好奇心提供一種簡單而有效的方法。

Curiosity, defined as an intrinsic motivation to explore and seek novelty, is a fundamental yet not well-studied motivation, especially in animals. Existing research primarily focuses on how animals engage in exploratory behavior in response to external stimuli and potential rewards, rather than being driven by intrinsic curiosity. These studies often overlook locomotion disabilities that physically hinder exploration and may not fully reflect the animals' intrinsic motivation to engage with novelty. Therefore, in this report, we developed a behavioral assay to assess curiosity-driven exploration in Drosophila melanogaster by measuring their willingness to enter a novel environment. With the assay, we found that male flies demonstrated higher levels of curiosity-driven exploration than females and observed a positive correlation between curiosity-driven exploratory behavior and the age of male flies, while visual cues were found to have limited influence on this behavior. Through the UAS/GAL4 system, we identified a potential association between dopaminergic neurons and curiosity-driven exploratory behavior. Our findings demonstrate how different variables influence curiosity-driven exploration and highlight the possible role of specific neurotransmitters. We anticipate that our assay will contribute to a deeper understanding of exploratory and curiosity-driven behaviors in flies and provide a simpler yet effective approach to study animal curiosity more broadly.

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