It's an accomplishment that scientists have dreamed about for more than half a century. At last, a massive international team of researchers has mappe

This Map of Every Neuron in an Adult Fly Brain Could Be Nobel Prize Worthy

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2024-10-05 12:00:03

It's an accomplishment that scientists have dreamed about for more than half a century. At last, a massive international team of researchers has mapped in exquisite detail every neuron in the brain of an adult animal with eyes and legs.

The nifty noggin, which anyone can now freely peruse, is no larger than a poppy seed, and yet it contains 139,255 neurons and 50 million connections.

This might seem like a small victory compared to a human brain, which contains 80 billion neurons and 100 trillion connections, but it's a huge leap from where neuroscientists started in the 1960s.

Emory University biologist Anita Devineni, who was not involved in the current research, predicts this new map will "transform Drosophila neuroscience" in an accompanying commentary in Nature.

Scientists first started mapping the wiring of animal brains roughly half a century ago, and these initial attempts were focused on a very simple creature: the sightless and legless worm, Caenorhabditis elegans.