Scientists Map Entire Brain of Adult Fruit Fly
Scientists Map FruitEntire Fly Brain inof NeurobiologicalAdult 'Breakthrough'Fruit Fly
The Facts
Princeton University researchers have reportedly mapped all the 139,255 neurons and 50M connections of the fruit fly's brain, potentially revolutionizing neuroscience.Princeton University researchers have mapped 50M connections between every single one of 139,255 neurons [brain nerve cells] in the adult fruit fly's poppy seed-sized brain.
Scientists of the university's FlyWire project say the most detailed analysis of an adult animal brain ever would open up “the mechanism of thought” for humans.According to Sven Dorkenwald, the lead author of the study published on Wednesday in Nature, the researchers built "an atlas of the brain, and added annotations for all the businesses, the buildings, the street names."
The Spin
This groundbreaking research opens upew new possibilities for understanding brain function and could inspire novel machine -learning architectures. The complete connectome of a complex living creature provides a valuable resource for studying brain organization and behavior. It's a crucial step towards unraveling the mysteries of more advanced brains, including human cognition.
Mapping increasingly complex brains is an enormous challenge that may not yield proportionatelittle benefitsbenefit. TheWhile the fruit fly larvalarval brain, whileis impressive, it is still far removed from human brain complexity. The time, resources, and computational power required forto mappingmap more advanced brains could potentially be better spent on other neuroscience research avenues that directly impact human health and cognition.
