Detailed map of fly's brain holds clues to human mind

A rendering of the poppy seed–sized brain of a fly (Drosophila melanogaster)

(Image credit: Tyler Sloan / Amy Sterling / FlyWire / Princeton University)

published 3 October 2024

What happened

A consortium of scientists published the first complete map of a fruit fly's brain Wednesday in the journal Nature. Identifying and charting the 130,000 neurons and 50 million connections inside the poppy seed–sized brain of the fly, Drosophila melanogaster, took 10 years and involved hundreds of researchers worldwide.

Scientists had mapped the 300-neuron brain of a tiny worm, but this is "the first time we've had a complete map of any complex brain," said Mala Murthy, a Princeton neurobiologist who helped lead the FlyWire project, to The New York Times. The "stunning detail" of the "tremendous complexity" packed into the fruit fly's tiny brain could "reveal principles that apply to other species, including humans, whose brains have 86 billion neurons," the Times said.

The "beautiful" and complex "tangle of wiring" mapped out in computer simulations may hold the "key to explaining how such a tiny organ can carry out so many powerful computational tasks," like sight, hearing and movement, the BBC said.

This "amazing technical feat" paves the way for mapping the neural pathways of "larger brains such as the mouse and, maybe in several decades, our own," brain researcher Lucia Prieto Godino of London's Francis Crick Institute said to the BBC. A mouse brain "contains about 1,000 times as many neurons as a fly," while the human brains has a million times more, the Times said, and scientists recognize that "bigger brains may not follow" the same "fundamental rules" for sending signals quickly across a fly's brain.

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.