Google and HHMI map complete male fruit fly brain with 166,000 neurons
A decade-long connectomics project reveals the wiring diagram of Drosophila's central nervous system, the largest brain map to date.
What to know
- Google and HHMI Janelia have published the largest brain map to date: a complete connectome of the male fruit fly with 166,000 neurons and 125 million synaptic connections.
- The decade-long project used AI to construct the map and human experts to verify it, advancing connectomics as a field and demonstrating a pathway for understanding larger brains.
- The male connectome complements a previously mapped female fly brain, enabling research into sexual dimorphism and how neural architecture underlies courtship and aggression behaviors.
- The data is publicly accessible via Neuroglancer, and researchers are already integrating it into physics-based simulations to test how the connectome produces behavior.
Google Research Lead research partnerHHMI Janelia Research Campus Research institution lead
How it unfolded 2 developments, newest first · click a bar or a number to jump articlesposts
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Fruit fly connectome integrated into physics-based simulation
Researchers released Fly Arena, an open-source simulation combining the male fruit fly connectome with a physical NeuroMechFly body model and behavioral controllers. The hybrid simulation supports walking, odor-guided search, feeding, grooming, and social interactions including aggression, though the connectome integration remains experimental and not yet fully physiologically validated.
“With over 166,000 neurons and 125 million synaptic connections, this is the largest brain map by number of neurons to date.”
— Google Research, Research organization · source -
first by Sci.News, 14d ago
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Male and female connectomes enable sexual dimorphism study
The new male connectome complements a previously released female fruit fly brain and nerve cord map. Having both sexes mapped allows researchers to compare neurons that differ between males and females, and to study biological mechanisms underlying fruit fly courtship and aggression.
“Having both male and female brains and central nervous systems mapped allows the two to be compared in places where neurons differ, and used to study the biological mechanisms for fruit fly courtship and aggression.”
— Google Research -
background
Connectome mapped using AI and human expert verification — The male fruit fly connectome was constructed using AI to build cellular-scale maps and then annotated and verified by a team of human experts at HHMI Janelia. The data is viewable and downloadable via Neuroglancer, an open-source tool created to visualize large multidimensional datasets.
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background
Google and HHMI Janelia publish complete male fruit fly connectome — A decade-long partnership between Google Research, HHMI Janelia Research Campus, and collaborators released a complete wiring diagram of the male fruit fly's brain and central nervous system in Cell. The connectome contains 166,000 neurons and 125 million synaptic connections, making it the largest brain map by neuron count to date.