The head of a Princeton team that mapped the brain of an adult fruit fly -- a watershed step in understanding the human brain -- explains the feat in a way that belies its complexity.
"Just like you wouldn't want to drive to a new place without Google Maps, you don't want to explore the brain without a map," explained lead author Sven Dorkenwald, who received his Ph.D. last year from Princeton and is now at the Allen Institute for Brain Science in Seattle. "What we have done is build an atlas of the brain, and added annotations for all the businesses, the buildings, the street names.
Fruit flies share 60% of human DNA, and have a parallel to 3 in 4 human genetic diseases. Understanding their brains is a step toward understanding those of more complex species, including people, the researchers said. The brain of an adult fruit fly is far more complex, boasting nearly 140,000 neurons linked by an estimated 50 million synapses.
The projectome allows for detailed mapping of specific brain circuits that control behavior, such as the ocellar brain circuit, they said. It takes in visual stimuli and orients the fly during flight.
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