Mapping the Fruit-Fly Brain

 Scientists have succeeded in mapping the neurons and connections of a fruit fly brain.

"A population of neurons that is responsible for updating the fly’s internal compass."

FlyEM/Janelia Research Campus / New York Times

According to the New York Times, "their speck-size brains are tremendously complex, containing some 100,000 neurons and tens of millions of connections, or synapses, between them....The work, which is continuing, is time-consuming and expensive, even with the help of state-of-the-art machine-learning algorithms. But the data they have released so far is stunning in its detail, composing an atlas of tens of thousands of gnarled neurons in many crucial areas of the fly brain."