Discoveries

March 27, 2023

The Beautiful Mind

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The recent mapping of a tiny insect’s brain just showed how complex the mind is, regardless of size or species, according to New Atlas.

Researchers at the University of Cambridge and Johns Hopkins University unveiled the first complete, high-resolution brain map – known as a connectome – of a larval fruit fly.

They explained that it is one of the most complex and intricate connectomes of any animal brain ever constructed, adding that it brings us one step closer to understanding consciousness.

The research team wrote in their study that the mapping took around 12 years to complete. The high-resolution imaging shows more than 3,000 neurons and around 548,000 connections between them.

To achieve this, the team used electron microscopy to visually slice the larvae’s brain into thousands of sections. While the electron microscope recorded an image of each slice, the imaging alone still took a day for each of the 3,016 neurons.

The final result displays every neuron and connection, as well as provides unique insights into thought processing and behavior, such as how the busiest circuits led to and from the brain’s learning center.

The new wiring map is the fourth complete connectome to date: Previous ones include the simpler brains of the microscopic roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans.

Scientists noted that the findings pave the way for a revolutionary new frontier of artificial intelligence and neuroscience developments.

Scientists are now planning to map the brains of adult flies and mice, but the prospect of a complete human connectome – a very ambitious endeavor – remains elusive, the authors added.

Click here and here to see the mind’s complexity.

This story originally appeared in the March 27, 2023 newsletter, Legion of Doom.