World Wide relies on analytics signals to operate securely and keep research services available. Accept to continue, or leave the site.
Review the Privacy Policy for details about analytics processing.
Research Scientist
University of Cambridge
Showing your local timezone
Schedule
Thursday, December 2, 2021
12:00 AM America/New_York
Recording provided by the organiser.
Domain
NeuroscienceOriginal Event
View sourceHost
Neuromatch 4
Duration
15 minutes
Brains must integrate complex sensory information and compare to past events to generate appropriate behavioral responses. The neural circuit basis of these computations is unclear and the underlying structure unknown. Here, we mapped the comprehensive synaptic wiring diagram of the fruit fly larva brain, which contains 3,013 neurons and 544K synaptic sites. It is the most complete insect connectome to date: 1) Both brain hemispheres are reconstructed, allowing investigation of neural pathways that include contralateral axons, which we found in 37% of brain neurons. 2) All sensory neurons and descending neurons are reconstructed, allowing one to follow signals in an uninterrupted chain—from the sensory periphery, through the brain, to motor neurons in the nerve cord. We developed novel computational tools, allowing us to cluster the brain and investigate how information flows through it. We discovered that feedforward pathways from sensory to descending neurons are multilayered and highly multimodal. Robust feedback was observed at almost all levels of the brain, including descending neurons. We investigated how the brain hemispheres communicate with each other and the nerve cord, leading to identification of novel circuit motifs. This work provides the complete blueprint of a brain and a strong foundation to study the structure-function relationship of neural circuits.
Michael Winding (he/him)
Research Scientist
University of Cambridge