The first wiring map of an insect's brain hints at incredible complexity
Researchers have mapped the more than 500,000 connections in the intricate brain of a fruit fly larva. This map, they say, could help scientists figure out how learning changes the human brain, too.
Scientists have created the first detailed wiring diagram of an insect brain.
The brain, from a fruit fly larva, contained 3016 neurons connected by 548,000 synapses, the team reported Thursday in the journal Science.
Previous wiring diagrams, known as connectomes, were limited to worms and tadpoles with just a few hundred neurons and a few thousand synaptic connections.
The fruit fly larva connectome is an important advance because it's "closer in many, an author of the study and an associate professor of biomedical engineering at Johns Hopkins University.
