Connectomes

…if wiring motifs from fly brain connectomes can improve performance of reservoir computers, a type of recurrent neural network

…New comprehensive connectomes of the fruit fly ventral nerve cord (VNC) provide an opportunity to study rhythmogenic walking circuits at a synaptic scale.We use a data-driven network

Identifying and characterizing the wiring rules of neural circuits is critical for our understanding of the computations that they perform and how they learn. The reconstruction of complete connectivity maps of neural networks at the single cell resolution make the quantitative study of their design principles possible. We examined the detailed connectivity of a column of the mouse visual cortex with a generative model that predicts connectivity based on explicit biological and physical features: excitatory or inhibitory cell type, the distance between cell bodies, and cell's depth, which is c

Connectomes provide critical constraints for neural circuit models. Advances in electron microscopy have dramatically increased the scale of connectome datasets, enabling more realistic modeling of neural circuits. However, challenges remain in using these datasets. Many models still rely on unconstrained physiological parameters, even within fully mapped circuits, leading to ongoing debates about the predictive power of connectomic data. Key questions remain on how synaptic connectivity relates to physiological properties and the anatomical detail needed to predict function. One modeling choi

…approach to visualize and analyze connectomes in mammalian brain. We base our technology, light-microscopy based connectomics (LICONN) on expansion microscopy to visualize the ultrastructure of nervous tissue, and show traceability of even the finest o

The last decade has brought us riches of connectomes from several species. Even though these detailed snapshots provide substantial insight into structure, composition and connectivity of neural networks, they fall short of explaining the dynamics they support. This stems from the difficulty to derive cellular model parameters, e.g., cell type and synaptic strengths, from fixed tissue. Additionally, neural systems are often governed by so-called ‘wireless’ connectivity, i.e., neuromodulation, controlling network state by way of volumetrically dispensed transmitters. What we can learn from a co

…network architectures, known as connectomes. However, these networks often suffer from vulnerability to disruption, limited flexibility, and difficulties in external manipulation due to their static nature. These limitations become partic

…The detailed reconstruction of connectomes makes it possible to study their design; Recent reconstruction of connectomes during different developmental stages in C. elegans allows for characterization of their development. We present a class

…structure, especially in complex connectomes, seem to favor specific recurrent motifs. For intrinsically directional and weighted networks such as those in the brain, it is particularly important to use methods that are sensitive to the weight-encoded information. We use new weighted methods to assess statistics of motives in the connectomes of various animals: \textit{C. elegans}, tadpole, drosophila,

Neuroscientists have many questions about connectomes that revolve around the ability to compare networks. For example, comparing connectomes could help explain how neural wiring is related to individual differences, genetics, disease, development, or learning. One such question is that of bilateral symmetry: are the left and right sides of a connectome the same? Here, we investigate the bilateral symmetry of a recently presented connectome of an insect brain, the Drosophila larva. We approach this question from the perspective of two-sample testing for networks. First, we show how this questi

…atlas enables whole-brain mapping of connectomes and has been used to optimise targeting of deep brain stimulation. This joint work with P