# Intrinsic Goals for Autonomous Agents: Hierarchical Exploration Captures Future Volitional Action in Drosophila > Source: > Published: 2026-10-27 15:06:12+00:00 Animals have a remarkable capacity for autonomy---driven by intrinsic motivation---without external sensory cues or extrinsic objectives, yet the computational mechanisms behind this ability largely remain a mystery. We combine whole-brain recordings in the fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster), which