They make a map of the entire brain of a ripe vinegar fly.

2024/10/07 Etxebeste Aduriz, Egoitz - Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Anatomia/Fisiologia

A map of the entire brain of a ripe vinegar fly has been made: 140,000 neurons and over 50 million connections. The achievement has been published in the journal Nature, in nine articles. It will better investigate brain functioning and brain diseases.

In the construction of the map, 21 million images taken from the brain of a female Drosophila melanogaster, also known as Photoshop, have been used. And with an artificial intelligence model, they've made a 3D map of those images.

The map has been made by a Flywire team made up of about 300 scientists around the world. Some researchers have analyzed connections and others have identified more than 8,400 types of cells, of which 4,581 are new. They've also been able to see how the connections between certain neurons influence movement or communication between brain regions.

The database has been made available to all researchers who want to access it openly and free of charge.