Connectomics

A joint team from Google Research and HHMI Janelia has produced a complete connectome spanning the entire brain and central nervous system (including the ventral nerve cord) of the male fruit fly — the largest brain map to date, with over ~166,000 neurons and 125 million synaptic connections. Comparing it with the existing female brain map makes it possible to analyze sex-based neural differences (courtship, aggression, etc.) and individual variation. It traces the full pathway from sensory (visual, olfactory, auditory) input to motor output.