Tiny brain, big deal: fruit fly diagram could transform neuroscience

[muriel_volestrangler]

Scientists took years to map 50m connections, which may lead to understanding of how wiring gives rise to behaviour

Researchers have produced the first wiring diagram for the whole brain of a fruit fly, a feat that promises to revolutionise the field of neuroscience and pave the way for unprecedented insights into how the brain produces behaviour.

Rarely in science has so much effort been directed toward so little material, with scientists taking years to map the meanderings of all 139,255 neurons and the 50m connections bundled up inside the fly’s poppy seed-sized brain.

In the process, the researchers classified more than 8,400 different cell types, amounting to the first complete parts list for building a fly brain.

“You might be asking why we should care about the brain of a fruit fly,” said Sebastian Seung, a professor of computer science and neuroscience at Princeton University and a co-leader on the FlyWire project. “My simple answer is that if we can truly understand how any brain functions, it’s bound to tell us something about all brains.”

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2024/oct/02/fruit-fly-brain-connections-wiring-diagram-neuroscience

[cyclonefence]

1. this is by no means

the fruit fly's first contribution to science. I bet my college biology lab class wasn't the only place students bred red- and black-eyed fruit flies to learn about genes.

[Torchlight]

2. Things like this get me awed, curious, and anxious

about where the human race will be in 100 years. I think back to the Deep Discussions we'd have back in college days (mid-eighties) over a few joints and cheap beer, and never in my wildest imagination would I have even blindly guessed that the internet and IA would not ever come to pass, let alone be as game-changing and fundamental to our practical lives as is.



So I do get really curious as to how things will play out over the next 60 years. Mapping the totality of a fly's brain today has me seeing images of spare human brains being programmed in a lab ready to be downloaded and replace the original in case of emergency or some such one spring morning in 2084.