Vinegar odor boosts the perception of a male sex pheromone in the brain of unmated female Drosophila melanogaster flies, as a team of scientists from the Department of Evolutionary Neuroethology has now discovered. The researchers were able to identify the underlying neuronal mechanism in the brain of Drosophila flies. Previous experiments had revealed that the male pheromone cis-vaccenyl acetate activates the glomerulus DA1 in the brains of female flies. Glomeruli are spherical functional units in the antennal lobe, the olfactory center in the fly brain.