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The brain is a massively complex organ that drives all behavior, but we know surprisingly little about how different neurons are wired for learning and thinking. A new, landmark achievement in neuroscience is going to help change that. We'll explore in the U.S. National Science Foundation's "Discovery Files."

So far, partial or tiny brain systems have been mapped, but the sheer size and number of connections makes it a difficult task. Supported in part by NSF, an interdisciplinary team led by Johns Hopkins University and the University of Cambridge have created the first complete map of an insect brain to date. The work charts and categorizes the 548,000 connections across 3,016 neurons of a larval fruit fly brain, an archetypal scientific model with substantial similarities to the human brain.

Although technology is still not advanced enough to map the estimated 100 billion neurons and 1,000 trillion connections of the human brain, the work provides a key link in connecting how incoming and outgoing signals allow for learning and retaining information, providing valuable insights into the mechanisms of thought.

The approaches and computational tools developed in this study will provide a basis for unraveling the brains of other species. The code for analysis was developed in collaboration with Microsoft Research and is available for future mapping projects and is expected to impact the work done in the next decade as well as inspire new artificial intelligence systems.

To hear more science and engineering news, including the researchers making it, subscribe to "NSF's Discovery Files" podcast.

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